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As another season rolls around, Laura Hayes and her team are looking forward to a fresh start in 2008. Last season was full of ups and downs and was overall, a frustrating year caused by continuing chassis problems in her USAC Western Sprint. Laura did walk away with valuable experience in driving a predominantly loose race car at high speed, and this will definitely help in driving other cars in the future, but it was not the year she'd planned for. While 2007 is a year Laura and her crew would prefer to put behind them, they are anxious to attack 2008 with renewed effort and dedication.
Over the winter break Laura applied for the 2008 Drive for Diversity (D4D) program, which offers promising female and minority drivers an opportunity to meet and team up with some of the best short track stock car teams in the country. Laura made it to the final 40 applicants out of hundreds that applied, however, she was cut due to a lack of stock car experience. The judges were extremely impressed with Laura's portfolio and her career to date; they strongly encouraged her to apply for the program again in 2009 but suggested she get stock car experience under her belt. And that is exactly what Laura will be doing this year!
At the close of last racing year, in preparation for the D4D competition, Frank Jordan of Golden State Racing (GSR) gave Laura the opportunity to test one of their late models at All American Speedway in Roseville, Ca. It was a successful test and everyone on the team was very impressed with Laura's first time in a full size car. GSR is one of the host teams chosen for the 2008 D4D program, and although Laura wasn't picked as a D4D driver, GSR was still interested in teaming up with her. Agreements were drawn to allow Laura to run in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series at All American Speedway as an associate team to Golden State Racing in a car leased from GSR. Laura is very excited about the up coming season and would like to personally thank Frank Jordan, Eric Snyder, Eric Schmidt and entire GSR team for their interest in her career.
While Laura will be focusing on the stock car this year, she will continue to run USAC Western sprint car shows as scheduling permits. In fact, the weekend following the late model opener at Roseville the USAC sprinters will run their season opener, also at Roseville. In this race last year, Laura finished 3rd in her first sprint car race and plans on besting that finish this year with her new Beast chassis. The entire Laura Hayes Racing team looks forward to testing and racing in both the late model and sprinter and are poised for a banner year.
Laura Hayes and her family would like to thank the following people for making 2007 a possibility:
Peoplefinders.com
Northbay Welding
Phil Hayes, Inc.
Team MMI
Gone Racin
K&N Air Filters
Scribner Plastics
Outlaw Graphics
Golds Gym
Also, a big thank you to Jay, Cody, and Lynn Almstrom for their dedication and continued help and support.
Stay tuned for upcoming testing reports and photos of the new cars.
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