Season On Hold After Tough Night

(Video Highlights Available Below)

     After a great 4th of July and an awesome victory, Hale Racing returned to the track on Saturday, July the 9th for what was scheduled to be a night of two main events.  Unfortunately the night ended early and was over after 36 laps of action.  It was another hot night at the track, and qualifying times were very tight once again.  Michael got himself into the top 5 with a 5th place qualifying position, and the night appeared to be on the right track.

     For the 1st main event, Michael would start 17th due to his good qualifying spot.  Michael fell back early as his car appeared to be tight through the corners, many of the other fast qualifiers were able to slip by on the bottom side of the racetrack.  On lap 4 Michael battled with the #30 of Nick Parker and the #14 of Rick Ellison.  Michael stayed patient as Nick and Rick raced side by side.  The 1st caution of the evening came out on lap 6, thus lining up the pack via single file.  The green waved and on lap 7 Michael would follow Parker past the #20 of Dan McCoy.  Just one lap later Michael was able to slide by the #4 of Lynn Hardy when some problems occurred on his racecar, forcing him to get loose in turn 3.  This opened the door for Michael and enabled him to pass by.  Once again Michael found himself on the back bumper of the #30 of Nick Parker.  On lap 11, Michael followed closely behind Parker to move past the #10 of Jason Aposhian.  On lap 12, Michael made yet another pass... this time he drove hard into turn 1, moving his car below the #8 of Kelly Van Cleave.  This put Michael into the 15th spot... but the passing was far from complete.  Caution would come out yet again on lap 13, once again putting the field into a single file row.

     After the cars lined back up for the green, Michael found himself right behind the #30 of Nick Parker again.  Parker quickly caught the #14 of Rick Ellison and began racing side by side with him.  Parker moved to the high side as Michael would once again watch patiently.  Up ahead of Michael a car would get loose and have to check up... this caused everyone behind him to check up, in doing so, Nick Parker moved up the racetrack and Michael somehow placed his car beside Parker's.  The two raced into turn 1, and Michael was able to force his way ahead.  The two cars touched as they exited turn 2 and Michael would complete the pass down the back stretch (click picture to view video of the pass).  The same car that checked up a lap before went way up high in turn 3 and Michael would slide by him as well, thus moving Michael into 11th.  "The car felt really good, and think we really had a shot at winning this one," said Michael of his racecar.  Michael continued going to work on the rest of the field.

Lap 17 saw the 3rd caution of the evening come out when the #27 of Jeff Price spun out in front of a large pack of competitors.  This would give Michael another spot and officially put him into the top 10.  When the green flag was set to come back out, Michael would follow the #24 of Jimmy Waters down to the Start/Finish Line as the modifieds went back to action.  With Nick Parker hard on the back bumper, Michael had to be very careful in trying to pass Waters and not lose a spot at the same time.  Waters tried to go to the high side to pass the #14 of Rick Ellison, but that would turn out to be a mistake as the high line slowed down and the bottom line moved forward.  Michael quickly slid in behind Ellison and made his way past Waters.  Michael would make the same move on the #48 of Rob Davis.  Unfortunately it was all for nothing when a caution came out, thus putting Michael back behind the 24 and the 48 car.  When the green flew once more, Ellison was able to get under the #48 of Rob Davis, and both Waters in the 24 and Michael followed suit, making the same pass on the bottom side of the track.  It wasn't long before another caution would come out... this time on lap 22.  This was about the time that the caution fest began to take place.

     Lap 23 saw yet another caution come out... Michael still remained in 9th at this point.  Right as the green flag came out... you guessed it, another caution.  This time it came out before any racing could even take place.  Turn 1 saw the #84 of Mark Ith get into the #7 of Bryan Wordeleman.  Both cars were sent to the back and Michael would then find himself in 7th.  So once again the pack would try to go back to green flag racing.  As the green flew, the #14 of Rick Ellison was able to get under the #74 of Kurt Lindeman, but was not able to complete the pass.  Jimmy Waters felt as if he was being held up so he tried to get around Ellison by using the high side.  This proved to be a mistake as Lindeman up ahead was able to get under the #51 of Mike Celia.  Ellison remained on the bottom and followed suit.  Michael followed closely and moved past both Waters and Celia in one corner.  Watch the video... the racing couldn't have been any closer.  After making the pass, Michael was able to get under the #14 of Rick Ellison.  The two battled side by side before another caution would come out.  This time it was the leader going around... and the #74 of Kurt Lindeman was unable to avoid it.  This put two of the top 5 cars to the back, thus putting Michael into 3rd.

     The green flag flew and Rick Ellison made his move pass the #11 of Gary Madsen.  Michael followed him, but it appeared Rick had started to develop problems.  Suddenly his car was struggling to come off of the corners, and this gave Madsen a chance to get back by... and that's exactly what he did.  Ellison's struggles caused Michael to check up and this allowed Madsen to pass both of them.  On lap 29, Madsen completed his pass back to the front and with Ellison coming off slow, Michael moved his car under him.  The two raced side by side down the back stretch and into turn 3.  Michael moved ahead as the two exited turn 4.  It's very hard to tell exactly what happened, but it almost appears as if the #30 of Nick Parker gets into the back bumper of Michael; this causes Michael's rear end to slide out and tap the left rear of Rick Ellison.  This sends Ellison's car out of control and with him not being able to correct the car, a caution was waved (click picture to view video of the incident).  Michael was sent to the back for involvement in the incident.  Even with the video slowed down, it's hard to tell exactly what happened.  "I was out of the throttle, I knew Rick was there, everybody knew he was there.  If I would have been in it, we really would have gotten together.  I think Nick believed I was already on the gas, so he got on it, and had no where to go.  It wasn't his fault, where else was he going to go?, heck I'm not even sure he got into me, but I'm not sure how else the rear end would have kicked out the way it did." said Michael of the incident.  Whatever the case, it was a racing deal, and unfortunately that sort of thing happens.

     After being sent to the back it was clear that Michael was unhappy.  With just over 10 laps left, Michael tried to gain as many positions as he possibly could before the end of the event.  Michael got by 3 cars and then found himself behind the #7 of Bryan Wordelman and the #24 of Jimmy Waters.  The two of them raced side by side as Michael was quickly running out of patience. Michael tried high and low, but had no where to go as Waters and Wordelman continued to race side by side.  As Michael was being held up, the #23 of Mike Sargent gained ground and caught him.  Sargent moved in below Michael.  On lap 36 the #7 of Bryan Wordelman got slightly loose and checked up just as he was exiting turn 2.  Sargent was still on the lower side of Michael.  Michael, basically out of patience, attempted a very risky move.  He tried to get under Wordelman with the 23 of Sargent still below him.  Unfortunately it didn't work.  Sargent came up and nobody was ready to let out of the throttle.  All 3 cars got together and slid hard into the outside wall down the back stretch (click either picture to view video of the wreck).  Michael's car went upside down, flipping over and landing hard on it's wheels.  Please be aware that the video of this wreck is rather large in size as I increased the frame size in order to make it a little easier to see exactly what happened.

     This brought the night to a quick end, and possibly an end to the season.  As the title says, the 2005 season has been put on hold.  It is unsure at this point whether or not the team will make a return later this year, but we ask you to please stay tuned to HaleRacing.com for updates on the status of the rest of the year.  Hale Racing would like to thank, as always, all of their sponsors for helping us out over the season.  We wish it could have been a better one, but your support is still greatly appreciated!  We'd also like to thank all of our fans for continuously supporting this team... even after the ups and downs of this the 2005 season.  Please stay tuned to this website for more details as soon as they become available on what Hale Racing plans to do for the rest of 2005.  Thank you for stopping by.  We'll see you soon!!

Short article written by Brad Edwards

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