High expectations were met with fast practice speeds in the days two practice sessions which saw the Ringwood, NJ native turn in the third fastest time in the final practice. Hartensveld continued to show strong speed in qualifying in the sixth position, his first career top ten qualifying effort in the UARA-STARS Series. Hartensveld's confidence was very high going into the start of the race on the 4/10 mile speedway, but things would change drastically for the young driver soon after the green flag dropped.

Hartensveld dropped back a couple positions on the start, but kept pace through the first portion of the race running right behind series career wins leader, Jamey Caudill and ahead of points leaders, Jake Crum and Richard Boswell. Unfortunately a few laps later the race went south for Hartensveld when the two cars directly in front of him made contact and as tight as the field was running he eventually got spun around damaging the front of his Yelton Motorsports entry.

Hartensveld tried to continue, but soon after the field went back green and after the driver made a few pit stops to try and get the car back up to speed it was found that he had engine troubles resulting from the incident. The 18 year-old racer then parked the car done for the night with a very disappointing result to a good day at the track.

"It's tough. This series has the best competition anywhere and when you qualify in the top six you've done something. Unfortunately we were just a victim of circumstances tonight, but I'm still confident. Tonight proved that we can race with the best of them and if we can get this engine back together this week, we'll be strong at Concord," said Hartensveld after the race.

As the UARA-STARS series is set to close out the 2008 season, Hartensveld hopes to better his season best finish of 6th and crack into the top five in the season finale on October 25th.

"I want to finish the season strong, we've had a roller coaster year, but I think we're where we need to be right now and I don't want to be sitting on the sidelines when they drop the green flag Saturday night."

For more information on Thomas Hartensveld please check out his new website www.THR36.com.