Concord, NC ~ A tough 2008 racing season came to a close for Thomas Hartensveld and his THR Racing team and once again it was a night that started off strong and went sour in the end.

Hartensveld again driving a second car for Yelton Motorsports owned by fellow competitor, Jamie Yelton, found himself fast in practice, lightning quick in qualifying and running in the top ten for the first half of the race. Hartensveld started in eighth position and slid back a little before beginning to make his run toward the top five.

The first exciting moment for Hartensveld came when the young driver raced to the inside of Joey Coulter. The two drivers made contact resulting in Coulter's spin. Fortunately for Hartensveld he was able to continue as several cars got caught up in the crash. Hartensveld dodged that bullet, then several more as he and 2007 UARA-STARS Series champion, Ross Furr battled for position as the two had a heated battle ending with Furr getting around Hartensveld for the

position.

Hartensveld continued to dodge bullets as several incidents dwindled the 28-car starting field down and unfortunately for the young driver his number was next on the hit list. Hartensveld got together with Roger Lee Newton as the two raced for position in the top ten. The result was Newton getting turned sideways and head on into the wall while Hartensveld got heavy damage to the front end of his car.

A pin hole in the radiator was enough to sideline Hartensveld for the rest of the 150-lap race on Concord's 1/2 mile "Super Speedway of short tracks". Hartensveld after qualifying a strong eighth finished 13 positions worse in 21st falling out on the 82nd lap of the race.

"It's not exactly how we wanted to end the season, but we could have been sitting on the sidelines after last weeks engine troubles," said Hartensveld following the race. "I want to thank everyone who helped us this season. It's been a huge learning curve for us to be on this very competitive tour."

Hartensveld is confident that in the next couple of weeks he'll have a lot of big news coming out that will help the young driver make a run at the UARA-STARS Series championship in 2009.

"We've got a lot of big stuff happening. The UARA is a great series to be a part of and our association with Jamie(Yelton) late in the season is opening some doors for us right now and we hope to be back next season and make a run at the series title."

For more information on Thomas Hartensveld please check out his new website www.THR36.com or contact Thomas at thartz36@optonline.net