American-Kiwi Jonathan Allard has proven to be one of the fastest sprint car drivers at WxC Speedway Western Springs this season, but as the old adage states: to finish first, first you must finish.
The 37-year-old has either won or been second in every feature race he has finished thisseason; the issue for him, though, is he ends up watching every other race from the infield.
That was the case last weekend, at round one of the Porter Hire International Sprint Car Series, as he took a nasty tumble after riding the wheel of another car.
"It was just a case of pushing hard to move to the front; I tried to make a move on the top [of the race track] and just ran out of room," said Allard.
"That's part of the challenge of racing at The Springs; the track is very tight for sprint car racing."
Allard bounced back two days later to claim second place at round two in Palmerston North, but it's consistency he craves.
"Turning our fortunes around and getting some consistency back will only come from hard work and great positioning on the track," he said.
"With the arrival of the international drivers it has really intensified every race; it's definitely more aggressive out there which is exciting for the fans and makes you really need to work hard to get to the front."
The California native has been joined by countryman Kraig Kinser this summer to compete for Team USA. With one round to go they are narrowly trailing both New Zealand and Australia in the teams racing.
"I know any time Kraig races he wants to win and I'm fortunate to have him as a teammate as he is one of the best in the world," said Allard.
"I love the teams' racing format, it's something that has so much history at The Springs, so we definitely want to show the fans what the USA team is truly capable of tonight."
Australia's Robbie Farr is the red-hot favourite in tonight's final round, having won back-to-back feature races last week. Midgets, TQs, F2s and Kiwi Kidz will also be on show tonight; gates open at 4pm with racing from 6.15pm.
