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May 26 2007, Roseville, Ca. A race that saw the return of USAC sprint cars to All American Speedway for the first time in 30 years, also saw the successful asphalt sprint car debut of Laura Hayes. Despite missing the first two races of the 2007 season, and with limited practice time in the seat of the PeopleFinders.com Chevy/Beast, Laura scored a strong third place finish in the 50 lap main event, co-sanctioned by CASA, for the Lucas Oil USAC Western Sprint Car Series. The race had a number of other firsts, including the first asphalt start for sprint car ace Jimmy Sills in five years and the first asphalt sprint win for Ryan Kaplan.
Timing in the top five in both practice sessions, a tight race track in qualifying left Laura with an eighth fastest time. With an eight car invert, she started in the pole position in the main along side fellow rookie Tanner Swanson. At the drop of the green, Laura established herself at the point. An early caution due to a car oiling down the entire track provided a precarious restart, but again Laura prevailed and led the field, this time with Sills on her rear bumper. Laura continued to hold the lead, pulling the field off the corners for the next 12 laps until the yellow again flew. On the restart, the second place car of JoJo Helberg got a run on Laura, making slight contact, but enough to move her up the track, allowing Helberg to get by. In the next turn, Brian Geisler attempted to follow Helberg underneath Laura, but she held her line, racing Geisler on the outside and held on to second.
For the next 7 laps, Laura held the second position before being bested by strong running Ryan Kaplan who on the next lap passed Helberg for first. For the following 31 laps, the running order at the front remained the unchanged with the trio pulling away from the rest of the field, lapping up to eighth place. At the checkered, Laura was closing on Helberg as she came across the line a close third. Lauras impressive debut drew the acclaim of her competitors and the local media covering the race as well.
Next up for Laura in the Lucas Oil USAC Western Sprint Car Series is a Jun 16 race at Altamont Motorsports Park in Tracy CA.
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