Jonathan Allard: Californian-based driver on the Western Springs Speedway event this weekend

The last lap is upon Western Springs Speedway, with the second to last event this weekend. 

Celebrating 96 years of excellence with a programme featuring Sprintcars, Midgets, and TQ's.

The main race will feature the Springs Royal 50-lap classic as drivers compete for $40,000 in prizes.

Californian-based driver Jonathan Allard joined D'Arcy Waldegrave to preview the event.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Waldgrave from News Talk SEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Fun and that's our focus now. It's seventeen minutes after
eight Springs Royal fifty Lap Sprint Car Classic on tonight.
Forty thousand dollars in prize money across the event. It's
got a lot of there's a few oddities about it
for a sprint car race. And joining us now to
talk about that California based driver, the current Springs Royal

(00:34):
Champion and a big lover of the accellent Western Springs'
His name is Jonathan Alart. He joins us now.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Good morning, Jonathan, Good morning, pretty early for a race
car driver, but thanks for having me on.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
I'm sure you're about to handle that and it will
give you good preparation leading up to your big event
Speedway Western Springs. You're no stranger, Jonathan Alard to Western Springs.
You're coming back to defend a title. Tell us all
about it. What is this race that you were competing in?
What was the Royal fifty lapper?

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah, so it's a Royal fifty lapper, which is the
King of the Springs. What a great events, I mean,
Jay Russell, Marley, all the sponsors. They put up some
pretty big money for us, and to go fifty laps
in the sprint Corps is a rarity in racing. So
our normal main events are between twenty five and thirty laps,
so fifty laps fifty lapper is a pretty big one

(01:29):
for us, and especially an aging race car driver like myself.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Is it a more stress on you physically mentally? Is
it a biggest stress on the cars or on the
cruise because you've got a pet stop which is unusual
as well. There are so many moving parts here. What
is the most effective part that's going to not interrupt?
But you guys are going to struggle with.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
Well, Darcy hit it right on the head. I think
all of the things you said is what it is.
So the cars are pretty much all out and normally,
like I said, we go twenty five to thirty laps,
but the fifty lapper is quite stressful on them, even
though we have a little intermission break halfway through because
our fuel tanks are It's why they call them sprint

(02:11):
cars because they're normally a short race, but so we
have to refuel and to do that we have to
get out of the car, so unlike a V eight supercar,
we have to actually get out of the car and
then they have to refire us. So we get a
little bit of an intermission, which which gives us a
little bit of a breather. But it's pretty intense because
you've got to pace yourself, but you still got to

(02:33):
run hard enough that nobody gets out on you or
you don't get away from the rest of the field.
That's what you would like to do if you were
the leader. But then you get into a lap car
situation and some heavy what we call traffic, and that's
when you come around to lap some of the guys
and it gets into a real stressful situation to manage
fifty laps and not tear anything up or get involved

(02:55):
in an incident. So you have to weigh that against
going as hard as you can. So it's quite a
quite a chess match.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Well, I'm interested in the intimition, if you will, So
what you time out and then you stagger the start again,
so no one loses anything in the intermission. How does
that operate?

Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah, so they've done something pretty rare here. Normally on
our restarts, like back home in the US, there are
two wide restarts and they throw the green and you
go at it. But an advantage of leading to the
halfway point is as the leader, you get to start
on your own row and then the rest of them
are staggered two by two and then you get to

(03:35):
refire and once the green drops, it's all out racing again.
So even if you pull out a massive lead, you
still have the break. So you really try to manage
the first part of the race and really get an
idea of what the car is suited to and what
you need out of the car for the last twenty
five laps, and then it's on once. After that halfway point,

(03:56):
it'll be some hard racing. The big money's on the line.
It'll be exciting for the crowd. We had such a
great crowd last year. Can't wait to see what it's
like this year.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
What about the cause, Well, you said they've got to refuel.
Can you do anything else? Are your boots? Do the
ties have to be managed or changed? Does that change anything?
A total? In the fifty lab it's.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
Pretty well open to what you want to change. If
you think you can get away of changing the motor,
go ahead, but you have a time limit. So we
have I think it's a ten minute stop and whatever
you can do in that ten minutes or whatever you're
comfortable with. So like last year, we had planned to
change tires, but the tire degregation was minimal enough that

(04:39):
we decided to stick with what we had and run
the last twenty five laps, which is pretty rare in
itself anyway. And so it's one of those management deals
in chess matches, just like in any other racing that's
a long term lap thing you managed trying to go
hard out like I said before, or tire degregation or traffic,
and it's really intense inside the car. These things are

(05:02):
not as comfortable as your luxury road car, but they're
definitely fun to drive. I'll tell you that.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
It's a reanimator. It's a zombie Western Springs refuses to diet.
As a matter how many times people try and kill it.
It comes back for more, and we hope you are
back as part of that when it does. Jonathan Allied,
reigning champion of the fifty lapper. You enjoy yourself, mate,
go hard, go fair, and tear it to bits.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
Hey, Darris, thanks for having us on and again, everybody,
come out it'll be an awesome event to see and
some fast racing and some great people bringing the kids
down let them look at the cars and it'll be
an exciting night. Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
For more from the All Sport Breakfast with Darcy Waltergrave,
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