Story by: Langley Austin ~ langley@RACE22.com

Wilson, NC(December 15, 2009) -- The 2009 season marked a change for several Eastern North Carolina drivers and such was the case for young, Michael Rouse.

Rouse, who was a regular at Southern National Raceway Park before the Lucama, NC track was shut down and recently put up for auction, but remains unsold at this time. Instead of sitting on the sidelines or moving to another weekly track for the 2009 season, Rouse decided to tackle the best of the best in the Late Model Stock Car world in the UARA-STARS Series.

Rouse, though underfunded compared to the NASCAR affiliated teams he was racing against found himself being competitive right off the bat, but in a season filled with tough breaks. The young Wilson, NC driver started off with a 24th place qualifying effort in the first race of the season at Bristol Motor Speedway, however his day turned bad right off the start as he finished 34th.

While the first run of his UARA-STARS Series career didn't get the young driver off to the best start he was steadily improving finishing 20th and 12th in his next two races at Tri-County Motor Speedway and Dillon Motor Speedway respectively. For his fourth race of the season as he would miss four tour races during the season, Rouse turned in his first top ten finish coming home with an eighth place finish at what would be the closest track to home for him at Orange County Speedway.
 

At Hickory Motor Speedway he turned in another impressive performance and picked up another eighth place finish at one of the oldest tracks on the circuit. Lonesome Pine Raceway was up next on the UARA schedule and next for Rouse as he looked to be on his way to a top ten finish again, but dropped back to 13th at the finish on the 3/8 mile track in Coeburn, VA.

Rouse made the trip back out to the Western part of North Carolina to Tri-County Motor Speedway in Hudson, NC. There Rouse was in position to get back inside the top ten, but late in the race slipped one position back and finished 11th, but for all of his teams hard work and dedication coming out there on a Friday night was a good run. At Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, NC a few weeks later he duplicated his Tri-County finish of 11th before turning in a dismal 17th place performance at Myrtle Beach Speedway in Myrtle Beach, SC.

Unfortunately for Rouse his next race at Dillon Motor Speedway in September he would duplicate that 17th place effort, but after that Rouse appeared to turn up the wick in the final two races of his season. First he returned to Hickory Motor Speedway, where he had previously finished eighth and came close to repeating that finish with a ninth place effort. Then in the final race of the 2009 UARA-STARS Series season Rouse turned in his most impressive effort surviving a crazy race at Concord Speedway to finish sixth.

For Rouse and his family owned team a sixth place finish as his best effort against the best Late Model Stock Car drivers anywhere was a great effort and to pick up the Rookie of the Race award two different times this season was a bonus for the young driver, who only started twelve of the sixteen races this season.  Tenth place in the points was a solid effort for any rookie as Rouse finished the season

Michael Rouse's 2009 Season at a Glance:

Date Track Name Start/Finish
3/21/09 - Bristol Motor Speedway 24th/34th
5/22/09 - Tri-County Motor Speedway 23rd/20th
5/30/09 - Dillon Motor Speedway 16th/12th
6/6/09 - Orange County Speedway 16th/8th
6/27/09 - Hickory Motor Speedway 12th/8th
7/4/09 - Lonesome Pine Raceway 19th/13th
7/17/09 - Tri-County Motor Speedway 18th/11th
8/7/09 - Ace Speedway 13th/11th
8/15/09 - Myrtle Beach Speedway 15th/17th
9/19/09 - Dillon Motor Speedway 11th/17th
10/18/09 - Hickory Motor Speedway 17th/9th
11/14/09 - Concord Speedway 14th/6th

Average Start - 15th Average Finish - 13th