USAR: Lakeland: Michael Faulk race report

Rare Mechanical Failure Ends Strong Showing

LAKELAND, FLORIDA (March 1, 2005) -- Michael Faulk and his MB3 Motorsports team put a years worth of hard work onto the track on Saturday at the USA International Speedway in Lakeland, Florida. To their disappointment, the evening ended early with a rare mechanical failure on their #53 Herbalife Pontiac and the result was a discouraging 36th place finish in the running of the Naturally Fresh 250.

"The car felt great throughout practice and qualifying as the team put a great set-up underneath me," stated Faulk. It's a shame this happened to us, the team worked extremely hard to get the car to where it was but unfortunately it was no ones fault. These types of failures happen in the sport of racing and we were the victim this week."

Faulk and his #53 Herbalife Pontiac started the 250 lap event from the 14th position as a result of their qualifying effort of 22.071 seconds earlier in the day on Saturday. Michael knew that he had a very good race car and felt that there was a little left in his machine for the 250 lap race. Unfortunately his evening only lasted nine laps before the mechanical failure prematurely ended his run.

"We were fortunate to have veteran Hooters Pro Cup & Late Model stand out Mario Gosselin sharing his expertise with us this week", added crew chief Lee Faulk. We all worked hard and had the car where we needed it to be.The team has put in countless hours preparing for tonight, but this is racing, and although it's not the way we wanted to start the season, that's just more of a reason to get a top finish in Valdosta our next race out."

Michael Faulk and his team did not have much time to think about their disappointing finish as they headed straight out to the site of the next race on the schedule. The rookie driver took to the track at the South Georgia Motorsports Park on Monday with his #53 Pontiac and turned some of the fastest laps of the day in an open test season at the 0x00bd -mile facility -- all in preparation for the March 12th running of the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series race.

To learn more about this exciting team and driver, please visit them at their newly designed websites at www.mb3motorsports.com and www.michaelfaulk.com

-mb3m-