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Consistent and Cautious Scores 1st Overall
-Video Footage Now Available- Rain held off just long enough for racing to take place on Saturday night. Although the skies weren't stormy, the mayhem on the race track certainly was. After 19 laps of clean side by side racing, it was nothing but a wreck fest for final 31. Knowing it was the first night of competition, Michael knew good and well there'd be plenty of accidents to avoid, and his consistency and cautiousness once again proved successful... scoring Hale Racing a first place overall finish and an early lead in the point standings. Things kicked off pretty good for Hale Racing on Saturday afternoon when the team took to the track for practice. All 3 sessions were successful, with Michael clicking off consistent upper 15 second elapsed times. Times were ultra tight with only two tenths of a second separating 1st through 10th in all 3 practice sessions. As for qualifying, it was almost just as close. Michael drove his Left Hander chassis Modified into the number one qualifying spot with a great lap of 15.671 seconds around the 3/8 mile oval of Rocky Mountain Raceways. It was a great start to what ended up being an excellent night of racing. Michael started official competition with a 7th place starting position for the first heat race of the night for the field of Modifieds. Having the number qualifying position, Michael would have his work cut out for him throughout the entire evening. As most RMR spectators know, when you qualify number one, you start at the very rear of the field. Not only for the heat race, but the feature event as well. Michael worked his way from the 7th spot up to 3rd in the twelve lap heat. Consistency was showing as the night progressed. Then came the feature event. The race that can make or break a night of racing, make or break a racecar, and make or break an entire season if you're not careful. Speaking of careful; that action, along with "Cautious", or "Being patient" could have been considered the "Keys To The Race." If you didn't have all 3, you were going to find yourself in some serious trouble before the end of the this one. I'd list all the victims of the race's incidents, but I don't know that I have enough space to write all the names. Although it was a mess, there were a few competitors that did indeed avoid trouble. Strangely enough there were only 3. Surprise Surprise; those 3 finished, as you probably guessed, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. It was brutally cold for the opening feature race of 2009, but low temperatures weren't going to keep things from heating up on the track. Things started off pretty clean for the most part. I had the camcorder rolling as I watched Michael patiently battle in the very rear of the 20 car field. For 19 laps, Michael raced beside the #4 of Lynn Hardy and the #00 of Rookie of the Year hopeful, Tyler Whetstone. Racing amongst the entire group stayed clean for those 19 laps, but soon after it was yellow flag after yellow flag. As you'll see from the video that I'll soon have posted, Michael really didn't make any passes under green flag conditions. There were a few, but most of the positions he gained were due to accidents ahead of him... some that he did a very good job of avoiding. The video is a real treat, and I hope to have it posted by Wednesday afternoon, so stay tuned to HaleRacing.com for the exciting footage. Michael, along with the event winner, Nick Parker, and runner-up Jason Aposhian all met the "Key To The Race" I spoke of earlier. Michael earned the overall points win by finishing 3rd and overcoming the most cars due to his number one qualifying position. With passing points being obtained; qualifying made the difference tonight. "Half the battle of winning a championship in this class is qualifying well. We did that tonight. The next toughest part is making it through the field of 20 plus cars and keeping yourself out of trouble. Avoiding other people's trouble and finishing the race in the top 10 or top 5. That was another goal we achieved tonight," said driver Michael Hale. "Now we just need to do the same thing for the next 14 races." It's a pretty extreme goal to meet, but Hale Racing has been trying to achieve it for many years now, and nothing is any different for 2009. Although cold, fans of Hale Racing were certainly out of hibernation and in the seats. It was a pretty good turnout for the Hale Racing camp, and we'd like to tell all of you thanks for coming out and watching us compete in the opening race of the year. Sponsors were, as usual, on hand to watch and cheer us on as well. As we always do, we can't thank you enough for all that you do in helping us become as competitive of a team as we can be. Without our sponsors and fans, none of this Saturday night fun could take place. So again, THANK YOU for being a part of Hale Racing! Don't forget, video footage of Saturday's race will be made available very soon. Even more importantly, Michael and the gang take to the track again this coming Saturday, May 2nd, so don't miss it. We'll see you all this weekend! Short article written by Brad Edwards
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