In The Press

Laura Hayes, 19, attended her first Drive for Diversity Testing & Evaluation Combine presented by Sunoco last October at South Boston (Va.) Speedway. Following the Combine, she had offers from three teams to drive a late model in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series. Two of those offers were from teams in her home state of California. The other was from Steve James Racing, located in Clarksville, Va., just 20 miles from the historic South Boston Speedway.

There is something new this year at the James Racing shop in Clarksville. After years of winning track championships with a number of top drivers, Steve James will build cars for a promising young female driver.

CONCORD, N.C. -- The Drive for Diversity initiative continues to move forward in 2009 with an expanded driver lineup and a new management group. Twelve drivers will participate in the sixth season of Drive for Diversity -- four in the Camping World Series and eight in the Whelen All-American Series. In addition, former Dale Earnhardt Inc. president Max Siegel and his new marketing and entertainment company, 909 Group, will take over day-to-day management of the initiative.

In NHRA POWERade Drag Racing two weeks ago at Infineon Raceway, Ashley Force in Funny Car and Karen Stoffer in Pro Stock Motorcycle were the No. 1 qualifiers in their respective divisions. Top Fuel Dragster driver Hillary Will made it to the final elimination round against Tony Schumacher. There were a total of seven women competing in the top four divisions in NHRA. In the IndyCar Series, soon to make its stop at Infineon Aug. 22-24, there are three women competing. The only top professional series that does not have women competing is the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, but All American Speedway's Late Model driver Laura Hayes hopes to change that.

WEST VALLEY CITY - Some of the women say they were born to be race car drivers, while others are inspired by national drivers such as Danica Patrick and Sarah Fisher. One was racing before a couple of the others were born. Whatever their backgrounds and experiences, six women competed as drivers Saturday night at Rocky Mountain Raceways. Californians Shauna Hogg, Audra Sasselli and Laura Hayes drove in the Firecracker 100 Sprint Cars race, while Utahns Jamie Wysong and Lyndie Burdett Luttmer and teenager Caitlin Shaw of Albuquerque, N.M., drove Ford Focus midgets. "It seems pretty cool. Maybe we were part of history," said Hayes, from Wilton, Calif. "I haven't heard of six [females] at one track before. My guess is that more women are doing it now and more people are accepting of it. Danica Patrick is paving the road for us and others."

2005 IKF Jr 80 Shifter Champion and 2005 SKUSA Supernational’s Runner-up Laura Hayes scored her first USAC feature win in the 40 lap “Triqueiro Classic” on Monday September 4th at Madera Raceway in Madera California. In so doing, she became only the 15th female to win a USAC feature in the organization’s 51 year history.

Madera, CA., Sept. 4 - A busy six-division twilight racing program on Labor Day at the third-mile, paved Madera Speedway featured USAC Western Series 360 Sprint Cars, Western Midgets and Ford Focus Midgets. The 5th annual Larry Trigueiro, Sr Classic from 3:00 to 7:50 p.m interspersed 360 cu. in. super-modifieds, Modified Super Toyotas (MST) and an entertaining 1st annual union members grudge race championship in old four-cylinder sedans.