Slight Distance Created, But Points Race Still Tight

-Video Footage From The Stands Now Available-

Main Event

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Saturday night was definitely a wild one on the high banked oval of Rocky Mountain Raceways. Trouble could be found around every corner it would seem, but fortunately enough, none of it seemed to find Hale Racing. The team did manage to increase the margin from 1st to 2nd in the points standings, but, like any other night, it was no easy task.

With just 2 classes competing with the monster trucks in town, Michael and the gang got plenty of practice sessions before qualifying started at 5:30 in the afternoon. Practice went about normal with Hale Racing being right there in the top 5 most of the afternoon. It was a cool Saturday evening when qualifying rolled around, and track times were a little faster than normal. Michel ran off two consecutive 15.86 elapsed times and earned himself 6th place. It was 3 positions ahead of the nearest competitor in the points standings, so things were off to a relatively good start. Granted it was only a 3 point separation, but at this point every little bit counts. Especially with just 3 points races remaining in the season.

With a car count of 21, the field was split into 3 groups of heat races. This placed the 2, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, and 21 qualifiers into the same group. Yep, Michael was in the same heat as his nearest competitor, the #30 of Nick Parker. The start appeared to be going well, but it quickly changed when the high line moved forward and Michael fell behind. He would move up to 4th, while Nick finished 2nd. This was a 4 point difference, so at this point, Nick was ahead of the team by 1 point for the night's overall points. Then came the main event. What a wild one.

Most of you have probably already enjoyed the video, and know how good the racing action was, so I went go into too much detail about this one. I will, however, state that it was probably the most exciting asphalt race of the year. These final 3 may even be more exciting with the race to the points championship winding down. As you probably saw in the video, Michael ran into some early trouble and after 15 laps, things didn't look very promising. That changed in quite a hurry though when Michael was able to avoid a very close incident that occurred between the #20 and #30 cars. It couldn't have been more than a foot separating Michael's McHander chassis and the two Left Handers that got tangled up down the backstretch. Somehow, someway though, Michael was able to keep his car out of trouble. "I literally jerked the wheel, kicked it a bit sideways and went for it. I was as surprised as everyone else that I got through there without spinning or hitting anything," said Michael after the event had finished. It was a big sigh of relief only to be greeted by another close call shortly after. A mix up near the front of the field resulted in a parked car right at the exit of turn 2. Michael had no where to go, locked up the breaks, and as you can see in the video, was unable to avoid the parked #79. "I just tried centering up the car the best I could because I knew if a tire were to hit, the car would never have been the same for the rest of the race. The bumper's toast, the nose piece needs to be rebuilt, but at least we didn't bang up anything else and kept the car in good enough shape to finish where we did," said Michael. That was no lie. Before long, Michael had moved up to 5th place right behind the #50 of Roger Wilson. You don't see it in the video, but after a quick yellow on a poor restart, the #50 ran into some ignition problems and was unable to get the car re-fired. This resulted in Michael moving up to 4th. "We were in the top 5, I knew there wasn't a lot of laps left, so the goal was to keep the car on the bottom and just hold my own. If someone in front made a mistake, I'd try to get the spot, but with the car pushing the way it was I wasn't about to try and put myself into a position that I could take someone out and ruin the whole night," said Michael after he quietly took home 4th place.

Where was the #30 after all was said and done? He too had a relatively successful night, and found his way into the top 10 with a 7th place finish. The final result at the end of the night? Michael was plus 23 and now holds a 45 point lead in the overall points standings. As mentioned earlier, 3 races remain in the battle for the 2009 points championship. That's a lot of racing to do with just a 45 point cushion. It's going to be a wild finish, so don't miss a thing! We hope to see you all again this Saturday night when the team hits the track once again at Rocky Mountain Raceways.

With the season winding down, we can't forget to thank all of our great sponsors, friends, family and fans! All of you guys are what make this team what it is, and without you, as said before, there's no way this team would be doing battle for a championship. Remember, just 3 races remain and we need your support, so be sure to come cheer us on throughout the end of the year. We greatly appreciate all you've done this far, but it's crunch time, and this is when we need you most. So, sponsors, fans, friends, family... mark your calendars and set time aside to come yell for the 01 car. We'll see you all at the races!