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19 April 2008 Roseville, Ca. This season, Laura will be spending the majority of her weekends racing a late model at All American Speedway in the NASCAR Whelen All American Series. The car is on a lease program from Golden State Racing, for whom she'll be running as an associate team member. Laura's debut race on April 5th didn't go as well as the team had hoped, as they struggled getting the car to perform. Clutch issues ended her night. That weekend was a race everyone wanted to forget and quickly put behind them, which proved to be the right thing to do!
The Golden State Racing crew worked with Laura and her car and crew, getting them all up to speed. For two Thursdays in April, prior to the 4/19 race, GSR and Laura were able to test and have gotten most of the problems with the car ironed out. This also afforded Laura an opportunity for more seat time. The chassis is now handling much better but the team is still at a disadvantage because they are running a compression engine, rather than the preferred crate motor. With the compression engine, rules state 150 pounds must be added to the car. In Saturday's race, Laura was the only driver with this engine package and is hoping to have a crate motor soon!
The day of the race on the 19th began with the car handling a bit on the tight side. After some changes to the car, it improved a little, but in qualifying, it was the worst of the day. Laura qualified 14th in the 25 car field. An improvement from last race, but still not what she was hoping for. With this starting position, she definitely had some work cut out for her in the main event. After the first ten laps, the car finally began to pick up speed as the tire pressures came up and Laura found a line that would work with the car. With the help of GSR's team owner, Frank Jordan, as her spotter for the weekend, Hayes was able to battle her way through the pack. On the restarts, before the tire pressures would build back up, the car would act extremely tight, in turn snapping loose on exit. This was when last year's experience driving a loose USAC asphalt sprint car every race, came into use. When most driver's would likely spin, Laura was able to keep the car under control and even gain positions while sliding sideways down the straightaways. At the checkered flag, Hayes came across the line in 5th position after starting 14th.
Laura finally had a good weekend and regained a lot of the lost confidence from the 2007 season. She proved she will be a factor for the rest of the season and impressed a lot of people with her top 5 finish in her first, "real" stock car race.
Laura would like to thank Frank Jordan for his continuous support and also for being a terrific spotter! Special thanks also goes out to Eric Snyder and the Golden State Racing crew for getting the car working better and for their driving tips. Thanks also to car owner, Al Vautier, for his support.
Next race is April 26th with the late model at All American Speedway!
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