Haynes Upbeat About World Series Sprintcars Author : Daniel Beard
Last year was Alan Haynes’ first year back into the sport and his outlook for World Series Sprintcars competition was pretty run of the mill. He was hopeful of making all the feature races and to finish respectively on most nights.

Haynes eclipsed those expectations by finishing the World Series Sprintcars championship in seventh place overall. He put together a string of top ten placings including a career best sixth placing at Nyora Speedway following home Garry Brazier, Max Dumesny, David Murcott, Jason Johnson and Drew Kruck. That night Haynes surprised all and sundry by claiming the top qualifying pacing the field with a time of 13.667 seconds.

Haynes is certainly looking forward to this coming series for a number of reasons. “This will probably be my last so we are going to make the most of it!” “Max and I are the two oldest blokes out here. We are probably racing each other to retirement but I don’t think Max will retire any time soon.”

Aside from the farewell factor, Haynes is looking forward to returning to a few of the race tracks that he saw for the first time last year. “I believe the experience of having raced on the tracks last year will be our biggest advantage over any of the new teams that come out on the road.”

“We expect a bigger rollup this summer with the introduction of the 410’s and the chance a few teams from Parramatta might have a go at World Series.” “It is pretty hard to beat the experience and the talent of the professional drivers contracted to the series but the package we have put together this year is as good as anyone’s.”

Haynes also hopes to do things a little easier this year after a tough campaign last summer. Alan self funds his racing operation through his own business Haynes Mechanical and as such was committed to working throughout the entire Sprintcar season. The team raced some forty meetings all up and apart from the Christmas Speedweek period continually commuted back and forth from Mackay.

“Our transporter housed all our spare bits and pieces.” “Straight after the meeting we would go over the car, clean it all up and have it ready for the next round before we packed up and headed for home.”

A credit to Haynes’ exceptionally consistent run last season was the fact that he finished his entire forty meetings, including all the rounds of World Series Sprintcars, in the same car. This year Haynes is hoping to do things a little easier. “We really just want to have a good time.”
Having a good time is what World Series Sprintcars is all about, and Alan Haynes’ involvement in this championship goes back many years.

In the 1998/99 series Haynes backed the two team H&M Machinery Components superteam of Randy Hannagan and Scott Milling. ‘The Hurricane’ Hannagan claimed seven feature wins but amazingly finished second to Skip Jackson in the championship standings. Haynes concedes some things have certainly changed since that time. “The crowds have become much, much bigger.”

“We helped stage the Kalgoorlie round last year and it was one of the best shows ever seen at Kalgoorlie. Club wise and spectator wise it was a huge event.” Alan also believes that the new direction for World Series Sprintcars under the Speedway Promotions Australia is another step forward.

“A change is good for everybody.” explained Haynes. The change for Haynes is definitely in his ambitions towards the upcoming World Series Sprintcars competition.“We are giving it as much as we have got!” “There is always those handful of drivers who are going to win on any given night but we believe we are right there behind them and if we can be consistent then who knows.”

“We will be knocking on their door and pushing for a top 5 finish in the series.” Last year Haynes just wanted to be respectable. He was certainly that and this year who knows what the driver of the Haynes Mechanical / H &M Machinery Components #Q47 Maxim will deliver.