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06 Septemeber 2008 Roseville Ca. For Laura Hayes, the end of the 2008 season at All American Speedway was a bit of a struggle. After a very successful and impressive middle part of her rookie season, the crew worked harder than they had all year in the three concluding shows, trying to find what was causing recurring performance problem with the car.
At the August 23rd race Hayes qualified 8th experiencing a distinct lack in power and speed in the car. It would not pull off the turns nor build any RPM. During the main Laura was able to move up the field before a small vibration started to occur and she began to fall backwards, loosing power. The vibration worsened and she could smell the strong odor of hot rear end grease. With 4 laps to go, she was forced to retire from the race when all power was lost to the car, producing the 3rd dnf of the year due to mechanical woes.
The next morning, the entire car was pulled apart from nose to tail. The rear end was sent to Los Angeles to be rebuilt and the engine was dyno'd at Penny Racing Supply. The engine checked out fine but the rear end gears and bearings were cooked and had to be replaced. The crew hoped this was the problem causing the major lack in power, as nothing else was found in the examination of the car. A special thanks goes out to Laura's uncle, Dennis McLean, for taking the time to help Laura and her father get the car back together in a matter of days. None of this could have been possible without his help! Also, a special thank you to Jeff Munro of PRS for his help and support in checking out the engine.
The following weekend, the team was astonished to find nothing had changed, the car still lacked power. The RPM would peak at 5900 and again the crew could not figure out why. The team changed carburetors and fuel pumps, and repaired a suspicious fuel pickup, some of the few things they hadnt replaced in the week before. But this didn't help either. Laura qualified 7th, started 2nd and never gave up, even with the frustrating problems. After falling back to 6th, she knew her only chance at overtaking anyone would be on the restarts. With a late race restart, Laura was able to take advantage and pass two cars around the outside, ultimately finishing a respectable 4th. Everyone was definitely pleased with the result after the frustrating day.
The final race on September 6th was a twin 50 event. After another week in the shop checking components and changing items in the fuel system and rebuilding brake calipers, still the car lacked power and would not build RPM. Everyone remained baffled when absolutely everything was tried and nothing helped. Holding her own in the first 50 lap main, Laura finished 6th. In the final 5 laps of the second 50 lap race, after a heroic multi-lap effort to pass a car on the outside, Hayes was spun out by another driver and had to go to the back of the pack. In the remaining laps she came back to finish 8th with a flat right rear.
So, the last races of the season weren't the way the team was hoping to finish out the year. The results definitely weren't from a lack of effort, everyone tried extremely hard to identify and correct the problem. But on the bright side, Laura still had an impressive rookie year, stepping out of open wheel cars and taming the full size stock cars at All American Speedway. In only her 8th attempt, Hayes found herself in victory lane and came close to more wins several times throughout the course of the season. With one fast time, a feature win, 12 top five and 18 top ten finishes in 21 starts, Laura climbed her way from 18th to 6th in the points standings. She finished 15th in state NASCAR Whelen series points and 96th in the national point standings. Laura is also in contention for the Rookie of the Year award at All American Speedway, which will be announced at the track awards banquet in November.
On October 25th, Laura will return to All American Speedway to run in the Roseville Toyota Late Model 100 with Golden State Racing. She wont be racing in the usual white and blue car, look for Laura in the black #22 car! This will be an exciting event full of late model racing and NASCAR Camping World Series racing. Don't miss it! For more information about the event, visit www.allamericanspeedway.com
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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