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12 July 2008 Roseville, Ca. Laura Hayes and her team experienced one of their rougher weekends they have had this year. Coming off of last race's win, everyone was confident going into this weekend's Toyota TRD 100. During the week, track officials made the decision to divide the race into two separate 50 lap events, so double points could be awarded.
Laura topped the charts in the first practice and it was looking like it could be another exciting night. In qualifying, Hayes was 2nd fastest with a time of 13.96 seconds, right behind her teammate, John Moore at 13.90. Laura started 3rd in the trophy dash and finished a close 2nd and had the fastest lap of the race. As in last weekend's trophy dash, the car came in very quickly and indicated to the crew that some adjustments would have to be made for the first 50 lap main.
The invert was six, putting the #22 in the 5th starting position for the first main. For the #22 car to be good at the end of a race, experience has shown it has to be very free at the beginning and Laura usually has her hands full until the car starts to come in. Two cars took advantage of this and Laura fell to 7th at the start of the race. On about lap 8, the car began to come in and the #22 Peoplefinders.com Chevy began to move towards the front. Laura fought a battle with the #50 of Gary Glenn, for the next 10 laps before another driver made and inside move on her and drove over the left front of Laura's car. The caution came out and Laura had to pit for repairs. The team pulled off the fender and Laura was back on track. She did manage to get back to 10th before the end of the race, but it was obvious the handling was suffering from the contact.
During the time between races, the team went to work and made a number of needed repairs as well as a chassis adjustment. Now the only thing they could do was hope the car would handle decent and try their best.
Laura started 10th in the second main and again the car needed a few laps to come in before she started her venture to the front. Unfortunately the same driver she'd had an altercation with in the first main drove into the side of her car again. When the cars parted, the #22's whole left side was literally gone. It was definitely a sight to see with half the car body missing! No caution was thrown for this incident and now Hayes was more than a half a lap back. She collected herself, and staying calm, she once again started her march back to the front. By the race's end, Laura made it back to a respectable 5th place finish.
After the race, Laura remarked, "Tonight was a little frustrating for us. It was unfortunate that we were involved in accidents in both races but we fought back and didn't give up. I'm very happy we were still able to pull off a top five in the second main with what was left of the car. I want to thank my team for working hard at getting the car back together and giving me something to work with tonight. I also want to thank everyone who supports me week after week, and hopefully we can bring our Peoplefinders.com late model back to the winners circle when we return in a couple of weeks!"
Laura Hayes Racing is made possible by:
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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