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28 June 2008, Roseville, Ca. Laura Hayes returned to All American Speedway to continue with the exciting summer schedule. After an impressive 4th place finish last weekend at the AT&T "Rumblin' at Roseville 150" Hayes was ready to return to best her finish in her Peoplefinders.com/ K&N Air Filters Chevrolet late model.
The Toyota Late Model 100 portended to be a promising night with the continued confidence that has been building over the season. Hayes entered the track for practice using the previous weekend's race tires. Very quickly, she could tell the tires were too worn to provide proper feedback for the day's setup. Without another practice set, the team again decided to save the equipment and sit the following practice session out.
Looking over notes from previous races, the team made minor adjustments for qualifying, hoping they were the right ones. With only one lap to clean the new tires off and get them up to temperature, Hayes stormed out of the gate and on to the track. After the two timed laps, Laura had grabbed the pole position by a full tenth. She was on top of the field until the final two cars made their runs, beating Laura's time by a hair. Laura was 3rd fast, putting her in the four car trophy dash. All three Golden State Racing drivers made it to the trophy dash this night, proving them truly be one of the top teams at Roseville.
Hayes started outside front row beside GSR's John Moore and with GSR's Kristin Bumbera on her tail. All four drivers settled into line, not risking their cars and getting information to recount to their teams before the main. Moore took the win, with Laura 2nd and Bumbera 3rd.
The invert for the main was 10 cars, the largest invert that can be picked! But 100 laps is plenty of time to get to the front and Hayes wasn't worried as she had previously come from dead last to the front in 20 laps. The invert put Hayes 8th on the grid. In 10 laps, she fell in behind 4th place and chose to remain patient and save her car for the end. Unfortunately an attempted pass on series points leader Gary Glenn, for the 3rd position forced Hayes under the rumble strips in turns three and four. This knocked something out of alignment in the car and the handling began to suffer with the car snapping sideways on entry and exit of the turns. But Hayes compensated by adjusting her line and picking up on what other drivers were doing while she was behind them. By lap 50 Laura had moved to the 3rd position, trailing the #27 of John Moore and the #16 of Paulie Harraka. As lapped traffic began to bunch up the leaders, Hayes planned on using these slower cars to her advantage. Hayes made her move on the #16 car, using a lapped car as a pick, forcing Harraka to stay on the outside and behind the slower car. It was a beautiful move that had the crowd on their feet as Hayes moved into 2nd. Laura began to pull away from the #16 car and set her sights on the #27. Again she adjusted her line and began turning times faster than the leader, hunting him down in the final 10 laps.
When the white flag waved, Laura was on Moore's rear bumper going into turn one. With one last chance to make it happen, Laura planned out her move for the final turn but another lapped car got in the way. Laura's front bumper made it to the inside of the #27's rear quarter panel coming out of turn two but now it was three wide and it looked like it could get ugly so Hayes decided to back off. At the line, it was Moore and Hayes nose to tail, with Bumbera rounding out the top 5.
Laura continues to improve week after week and continues to impress. This 2nd place finish is her best of the season and hopefully a win is coming soon!
Special thanks to Rob Miller of Peoplefinders.com for making the rest of this season possible for Laura!
Laura would like to thank her sponsors:
Peoplefinders.com, K&N Filters, Golden State Racing, GoneRacin.com, RPM-Race Place Motorsports, PHI-Phil Hayes Inc., Team MMI, Outlaw Graphics, FRE-Finishline Racing Equipment, Northbay Welding, Gold's Gym, Scribner Plastics, VIP-Voris Investment Properties, Radial Tire of Elk Grove, Lee Power Steering, Davis Motorsports of Reno
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