Corey Allard claims Idaho 200, first feature victory

POST FALLS — All the time and money Corey Allard has poured into racing over the years paid off on July 31 at Stateline Speedway.

The 37-year-old Sandpoint native won the 22nd running of the Idaho 200 late model stock car race to claim the first feature victory of his career.

Allard has raced in the Idaho 200 over 10 times, with his previous best finish coming in 2017 when he grabbed fourth. He’s won his fair share of exhibition and preliminary races during his career, but he’s always been just a few spots short of taking home the main event.

Well all that changed, and the 2002 Sandpoint High grad said he was almost speechless after the victory.

“At first it was kind of hard to believe that finally things went our way and we earned it,” he said.

Friends and family stormed Allard following the win, including his dad, Brad, who owns three track championships at Stateline in different divisions.

After Allard graduated from Lewis-Clark State, he switched roles with his dad. Allard hopped in the driver seat of the family’s late model car at 21 years old and Brad took a step back to support his son’s racing pursuits. The two never switched back and have continued to work side-by-side to build the best race car in hopes that a moment like Saturday would become reality.

Allard’s love for racing came from his dad and he said it was special to share that win with him. Allard has a crew full of friends and family, but he and his dad are the two that pour their blood, sweat and tears into the car day in and day out.

“At that point, I was just so happy for my dad and all the time and money he puts into it,” Allard said. “To finally win one as the driver with him being there and us putting this car together, that meant a lot to me and I know it means a lot to him. There comes a point where you do this long enough you kind of start to wonder, ‘Are we always going to fall just a little short?’ and finally we were at the top of the board at the end of the race.”

And Allard couldn’t have picked a better place for his first feature victory. He said the Idaho 200 is “the crown jewel race” for this area and he could tell the hometown fans were pretty fired up about a local taking home the trophy and the $5,000 first-place prize money.

But the win was by no means easy. You just have to take one look at the car to see that.

Allard started ninth in the 26-car field and early on he got collected in a multi-car accident. A car in front of Allard lost its brakes, spun out and ripped almost the whole right side off his car. Their day could have been over, but fortunately Allard’s crew was able to fix the car and get him back on track before the race restarted.

“That was not the start we were hoping for, but nobody gave up,” he said.

Allard got involved in another incident, but battled his way to 12th at the halfway point — 100 laps — of the race.

Allard said they survived the first half of the race and then made a minor adjustment that allowed him to climb his way through the field in the final 100 laps.

Between lap 145 and 185 Allard made up about a half-a-lap deficit to track down the pack in front of him and move into third place.

“We were consistently two tenths to a tenth of a second faster than all the other guys in front of us,” he said.

Following a caution, Allard was able to surge ahead of the two cars in front of him with eight laps left and he held them off the rest of the way.

All the adversity Allard and his team faced just made the victory that much sweeter. It was a grind, but Allard said everyone stayed positive because they knew how fast the car was.

“I knew we had a good car the whole weekend and … we knew our car was good even after the wreck, we just didn’t have track position and had to fight our way through everything,” he said.

Allard has led late in feature races in the past, but he said they just haven't been able to finish the deal. He said it felt great to finally break through.

“We actually kind of reversed things and came from the back and were able to get to the front in the late laps,” he said. “For once, we were the one coming to the front at the end.”

Allard first got behind the wheel of his dad’s late model car when he was 16. He raced it a few times at 17, but then he headed off to LCSC. While he was in college, Allard would come back on weekends and breaks to work on the car with his dad and help him out.

When Allard graduated and Brad approached him about taking over the driving duties, he wasn’t going to turn it down. His dad started racing as a teenager on the now defunct dirt track in Colburn. Allard grew up on race tracks watching Brad win late model races and he wanted to follow in his footsteps. But he also knew it would be a struggle at times.

Allard, who is a project manager at Sawtooth Land Surveying in Coeur d’Alene, said racing is an expensive hobby.

“It’s basically like a second full-time job,” he said. “It can be overwhelming at times, but we keep doing it.”

With the weather in North Idaho, Allard only gets about a six-month window to hit the track. He said they typically race five to eight times each year and he sticks mostly to races in Washington and Idaho. He’d love to race more, but it’s impossible to find the time.

The car Allard drove to victory on Saturday was just built this past year. He said they bought the chassis and frame from Chuck Carruthers, who has really helped them improve their equipment and performance over the past few years.

“We can’t thank him enough,” Allard said about Carruthers. “He definitely deserves some of this because without him we wouldn't have been there, that’s for sure.”

Allard debuted the new car in May at Stateline Speedway, but he got in a wreck in a Northwest Super Late Models race that forced him to stay off the track for over a month to fix the damage.

He returned to Stateline a few weeks ago for a race, but suffered another setback when the power steering broke.

Allard was finally able to showcase the full potential of the car this past weekend. He thanked his sponsors — Rathdrum Drug, Peak Sand and Gravel and Valu Tire & Storage — for sticking with him and supporting him through all the ups and downs.

Allard will return to Stateline in a few weeks for his next race and he hopes to carry the momentum from this victory into that event.

Regardless of what happens in the future, Allard said racing will always be a part of his life in some fashion. The sport is in his blood and Saturday’s victory reminded Allard why he continues to chase his dreams behind the wheel.

“What keeps us going is that pursuit of competition and winning,” he said, “and when you have those years where things go really bad and you are not even competitive, you kind of look in the mirror at the end of the year and go, ‘Man is this worth it?’ … and then when things like last weekend happen, it’s all worth it.”