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Hey everybody! Laura here. It's been quite some time since my website has been updated and I don't want you all to think I've fallen off the face of the earth, so I'll take a moment to quickly tell you what I have been up to and what my plans are for the 2010 race season.

Hey everyone, Laura here! I just wanted to take a moment and thank all of the people in Virginia who have made my transition and stay on the east coast one of the best experiences of my life. I especially want to thank two wonderful people, who have been so good to me. Joe and Sheryl Pelella, thank you for all that you have done.

Laura Hayes has big dreams of racing in NASCAR's premier series, and after completing the 2009 racing season at South Boston Speedway last Saturday, she is that much closer to realizing her dreams. Hayes is a part of the Drive for Diversity lineup for the 2009 racing  

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The evolution of the Drive for Diversity, NASCAR's leading on-track diversity initiative, will continue in 2010 as competitors relocate to Charlotte and enter "academy-style" development under a single team ownership structure.

01 May 2009 Clarksville, Va Press Release While the 2009 season hasn't exactly started off the way Laura Hayes anticipated, she continues to learn and improve every race with her new team and new track.

Drive for Diversity's Laura Hayes will be on The Morning Drive with Mike Bagley and David Poole tomorrow morning at 8:30am ET. Laura will talk about her move from California to South Boston, Va. and her preparations for the 2009 season with James Racing and the Drive for Diversity program.

24 January 2009 Wilton, Ca Press Release On January 22nd, at the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, NC, during the annual Charlotte Media Tour, 18 year old Laura Hayes of Wilton, Ca, was announced as one of twelve drivers in the Drive for Diversity lineup for the 2009 season. Hayes will be driving for James Racing at South Boston Speedway in South Boston, Va. in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series.

21 January 2009 Wilton, Ca Before the 2009 season begins for Laura Hayes, a quick recap of the 2008 season must be made. In October, Laura was invited to the 2008 Drive for Diversity Testing and Evaluation Combine presented by Sunoco. Twenty-five drivers from across the United States were chosen from hundreds of applicants to participate in the two day event held in South Boston, Va., all hoping to be a part of the 09 D4D driver line up. One day of the Combine consisted of media and sponsor relations activities and training. The other day took place at the famous South Boston Speedway, where drivers made laps in Camping World cars, while being mentored by a member of one of NASCARs most historic racing families, Wendell Scott, Jr. His support and feedback was absolutely invaluable to each of the drivers.

08 October 2008 Wilton, Ca On October 13th-14th, Laura Hayes will attend the 2008 Drive for Diversity Testing and Evaluation Combine presented by Sunoco at South Boston Speedway in South Boston, Va. Laura is one of 26 drivers selected from over 200 applicants to showcase their skills in the presence of NASCAR team owners, where only fourteen will earn rides in NASCAR's developmental series. The Drive for Diversity program is run by Access Marketing and Communications, who seek to develop minority and female drivers in NASCARs developmental Series, the Camping World series and the Whelen All-American Series.

06 Septemeber 2008 Roseville Ca. For Laura Hayes, the end of the 2008 season at All American Speedway was a bit of a struggle. After a very successful and impressive middle part of her rookie season, the crew worked harder than they had all year in the three concluding shows, trying to find what was causing recurring performance problem with the car.

16 August 2008 Roseville Ca. With only 5 races remaining in the NASCAR Whelen All American Series at All American Speedway, Laura Hayes continues to search for the 2nd win of her rookie season in the late models. She came close again on Saturday night in a finish surprising to both Laura and her team.

09 August 2008 Roseville Ca. Laura Hayes added her 9th and 10th top five finishes to her 2008 record in an exciting and impressive manner. To start the day off, Laura qualified her #22 Peoplefinders.com Chevy in the 5th spot. When the invert was drawn, she would move her starting position to the outside of row one. Hayes ran 2nd for the first laps until she ran out of room in between the car to her inside and the wall on a lap 5 restart. From the contact, Laura got the worst part of it when she fell from 2nd to 9th in one turn. Keeping herself calm and composed, and with her dad encouraging her over the radio, Hayes was able to pilot her car back up through the field. Passing cars on the inside and outside, Laura was the one to watch in the first 50 lap race. When the checkered dropped, Hayes crossed the line in 3rd spot closing on the leaders, a great comeback!

02 August 2008 Roseville, Ca. All American Speedway was back in action this weekend in Roseville Ca! With six races remaining, Laura Hayes finds herself just outside of the top 5 in the points chase, when only a handful of races ago, she was outside of the top 10. With consistent top 5 finishes, Hayes continues to improve in the standings.

26 July 2008 Roseville, Ca. After a weekend off, the NASCAR All American Late Models returned to race #12 at All American Speedway for "Fan Appreciation Night." with a new left side body on her car, Laura was ready to get back behind the wheel!

12 July 2008 Roseville, Ca. Laura Hayes and her team experienced one of their rougher weekends they have had this year. Coming off of last race's win, everyone was confident going into this weekend's Toyota TRD 100. During the week, track officials made the decision to divide the race into two separate 50 lap events, so double points could be awarded.

05 July 2008, Roseville Ca. After eight races at All American Speedway, running in the NASCAR Whelen Late Model series, Laura was able to get her first win on July 5th! In the two afternoon practice sessions consisting of a 20 car field, Hayes was 4th fast in both. Laura and her Peoplefinders.com Chevy were also 4th fastest in qualifying with at time of 13.915 seconds at 86.237mph. Once again, all three Golden State Racing cars were in the fast car trophy dash, with Hayes on pole, John Moore (#27) on the outside of her, and Kristin Bumbera (#00), starting 4th. Laura took the lead and walked away with the win! The car came in immediately and was very fast.

28 June 2008, Roseville, Ca. Laura Hayes returned to All American Speedway to continue with the exciting summer schedule. After an impressive 4th place finish last weekend at the AT&T "Rumblin' at Roseville 150" Hayes was ready to return to best her finish in her Peoplefinders.com/ K&N Air Filters Chevrolet late model.

21 June 2008, Roseville, Ca. The June 21st race at All American Speedway was a special points race. The AT&T "Rumblin' at Roseville 150" was a divided into two 75 lap segments, with accumulated points deciding the winner. $4000 was the winner's prize.

14 June 2008, Roseville, Ca. Laura Hayes returned to All American Speedway for her 7th race of the season in her Peoplefinders.com Chevrolet on June 14th.

07 June 2008, Roseville, Ca. Laura Hayes had yet another strong finish in her Peoplefinders.com Chevrolet late model on the weekend on June 7th.

24 May 2008 Roseville, Ca. Laura Hayes and her team were happy to be back this weekend after being forced to miss the May 17th race due to circumstances beyond their control. Laura was definitely itching to get back behind the wheel after a couple of weeks of not racing. Once again, the car was running well and the #22 Peoplefinders.com/GoneRacin.com Chevrolet was in the top five in practice. With All American Speedway's tire rule, teams are only allowed two new tires per race and because Hayes missed the previous race she was behind a set of tires compared to everyone else, being forced to race with an old set of tires. Throughout the day, the sky was overcast and there was a slight chance of rain. Before qualifying, it began to sprinkle and the track came to be a little slick. But old tires and a little rain didn't slow Laura down when she grasped her first fast time of the season! With a time of 13.80 against a second fast a 13.86, Laura was pumped and ready for the 50 lap main event.

03 May 2008 Roseville, Ca. After the previous race weekend's incident with a seizing motor, luck definitely turned for the better for Laura and her crew. In previous races, Laura had been running a compression engine and the rules state 150 pounds must be added with this motor package; this proved to be a significant disadvantage. The crew of Golden State Racing worked hard to get a new crate engine in the car as well as some other changes to the chassis so Laura could get an opportunity to get a feel of the new package in a Thursday test session. The test was very successful with the chassis feeling night and day better and Laura turned her fastest lap by more than three tenths of a second. Laura and GSR were very happy with the test session and all looked forward to a promising race weekend.

26 April 2008, Roseville, Ca. The May 26th race recap is a rather short one. Overall, the day was a frustrating one for Laura Hayes and her team as they were having difficulties setting the car up to speed. The chassis continued to show predominate understeering in the center of the turn, with a snap loose (push-to-loose) on exit. Qualifying didn't go as planned either. Laura would have to start 15th. As the 50 lap race proceeded, it appeared the car was losing power and approximately 15 laps in, smoke started to trail the car and after a couple of laps of this, the best decision was to retire from the race.

19 April 2008 Roseville, Ca. This season, Laura will be spending the majority of her weekends racing a late model at All American Speedway in the NASCAR Whelen All American Series. The car is on a lease program from Golden State Racing, for whom she'll be running as an associate team member. Laura's debut race on April 5th didn't go as well as the team had hoped, as they struggled getting the car to perform. Clutch issues ended her night. That weekend was a race everyone wanted to forget and quickly put behind them, which proved to be the right thing to do!

12 April 2008 Roseville, Ca. The Western States USAC Sprint Cars returned to All American Speedway in Roseville, California for their debut race of the 2008 season on April 12th. Laura Hayes and her team also returned with a brand new chassis and more confidence after a couple of successful testing sessions. From the first practice session, Laura was having problems with the left front brake locking up, which in turn caused the car to push up the track. Even with almost full rear brake cranked into it, the fronts continued to lock up. The team thought they had the problem figured out before qualifying but even then, they were still locking up and this slowed the car down considerably. Laura surprisingly still qualified 8th in the 19 car field; after the 8 car invert, Laura would start on pole for the main. Last season, at the Roseville race, the same thing happened and Laura led the first dozen laps and finished a strong 3rd in her first ever sprint car race. She hoped the opportunity would allow her to better last year's effort.

As another season rolls around, Laura Hayes and her team are looking forward to a fresh start in 2008. Last season was full of ups and downs and was overall, a frustrating year caused by continuing chassis problems in her USAC Western Sprint. Laura did walk away with valuable experience in driving a predominantly loose race car at high speed, and this will definitely help in driving other cars in the future, but it was not the year she'd planned for. While 2007 is a year Laura and her crew would prefer to put behind them, they are anxious to attack 2008 with renewed effort and dedication.

08 September, 2007 After a full day of testing with direction and advise from famed national crew chief/team manager Larry Trigueiro and addition help from national midget, sprint and Silver Crown driver Mike Murgoitio, Laura and her team reinforced their decision to purchase a new chassis to finish out the year. After multiple runs on the track with what some would consider drastic, even bizarre, chassis changes, nothing proved successful in altering the car's corner exit oversteer, or "loose"character.

Sept 06 2007, Roseville, Ca. When a call came from Frank Jordan of Golden State Racing on Wednesday the 5th, offering a test in one of their late models the following day at All American Speedway in Roseville, Ca, Laura did not hesitate to jump at the chance. After a quick trip to the GSR shop to fit her in the car that evening, Laura was ready for her first opportunity to wheel a stock car. That she would be doing it in a car from the stable of one of the premier West Coast late model teams made it even more exciting. GSR fields cars for Eric Schmidt, 2005 SRL champion and current point leader in the Whelen Late Models at All American.

18 Aug & 01 Sep, 2007, Altamont, Ca and Salt Lake City, Ut Two races on different tracks, in different locals, provided similar experiences and results. Handling issues with the car continued to plague Laura and her team. Help in the form of setups from other teams and "telephone tuning" from Larry Triguerio during the events provided no relief from the constant oversteer characteristic of the car.

Everyone says one's first try at the 3/8mile Rocky Mountain Raceway, is a learning experience. That is definitely what it was for Laura Hayes and her team. Right off the trailer, Laura was a fast as anyone, even the local racers who are extremely fast. But as the day progressed, most everyone, but Laura, seemed to get faster as she was still trying to figure out the tricky track and get the car working properly. Stagger and tire pressures turned out to be critical issues for obtaining a good setup. Laura would qualify in the 15th position.

Laura's first experience at Altamont Motorsports Park taught her how to drive an extremely loose race car on a fast 1/2mile track. Laura and her team weren't satisfied with her first finish there and they hoped to redeem themselves with a top finish.

After a less than satisfying race at Altamont Motorsports Park, Laura Hayes and her team looked forward to a new weekend on the 1/3 mile at Madera Speedway on July 7th. Laura won her first USAC race at Madera last year in the Ford Focus Midget and had high hopes for the weekend.

June 16, 2007, Tracy Ca. Coming off an impressive 3rd place finish at All American Speedway in her first sprint car event, Laura Hayes and her team looked forward to racing on the fast half mile at Altamont, near Tracy, CA. With high expectations for a good finish, the race didn't turn out as anticipated; it turned into what we call a "character building" weekend.

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.