{"id":23699,"date":"2018-07-18T07:28:56","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T11:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=23699"},"modified":"2018-07-17T21:29:43","modified_gmt":"2018-07-18T01:29:43","slug":"haley-on-a-legends-hot-streak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/2018\/07\/haley-on-a-legends-hot-streak\/","title":{"rendered":"Haley on a Legends hot streak"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Haley on a Legends hot streak<\/strong><\/p>\n

WATERFORD \u2014 Sometimes you have to slow down to go faster.<\/p>\n

That was the advice Colin \u201cThe Comet\u201d Haley of Ashford received during a trip to North Carolina last fall. It\u2019s a philosophy that helped him earn three straight podiums in the Legends division at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl, including his first-ever victory on July 4.
\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought that win was going to come,\u201d said Haley, who has been competing in the Legends division for four seasons. \u201cI kept falling short. But you have to stay humble and be consistent. As long as you give it your best effort, that\u2019s all you can do. The wins will come.\u201d
\nHaley will be seeking another win when Wild and Wacky Wednesday resumes Wednesday at the Speedbowl. The four regular divisions \u2014 the Legends, X-cars, Super X-cars and Bandoleros \u2014 will be joined by the Vintage Midget Racers. The action starts at 6:45 p.m.
\nHaley said his Legends career started to turn around when he visited North Carolina last fall to get some information \u2014 and a pep talk.
\n\u201cI talked to a few guys down there and I learned a lot,\u201d Haley said. \u201cThree months later I went to Mooresville, North Carolina and I went to see Dennis Lambert and Jeff Jordan. They told me just to focus on my line. Sometimes you have to slow down to go faster. So I came back here and tried to do the things they told me and I started doing things the right way.\u201d
\nHe also needed the right car. That\u2019s where Jags Palmer of Berlin came in.
\n\u201cI had a rough three years in a Legend and had a lot of bad luck,\u201d Haley said. \u201cI sold my cars and went to see Jags Palmer. I purchased a new car and built another car. And that\u2019s when my luck started to turn around. And we started to head in the right direction. Jags got me back into the game.\u201c
\nThat became obvious early in the 2018 season. Haley started his upward surge with a fourth place run on June 20. Then he moved up to third \u2014 his first podium finish ever \u2014 on June 27. That set the stage for Haley\u2019s breakthrough night on July 4.
\n\u201cThat fourth place finish was like a win,\u201d Haley said. \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable how many great drivers there are in the Legends division. If you can finish in the Top 5 and drive your car into the trailer in one piece, it\u2019s like a win.\u201d
\nThat meant he was in the proper mindset on July 4.
\n\u201cI went into that race feeling as confident as I ever have,\u201d Haley said. \u201cWith 12 laps to go, someone blew up and the track was layered with speedy dry. When the race went green, I got crossed up into the speedy dry and slid up the track and got into Mike Blaskey and he hit the wall.
\n\u201cI was a little shaken up after that because Mike is a good friend of mine. But I collected all my thoughts and I ran consistently the rest of the way. I just put the hammer down and drove the wheels off the car.\u201d
\nHe almost pulled another win on July 11, but finished second to Peter Bennett.
\n\u201cIt was definitely crazy,\u201d Haley said. \u201cI was on the outside of Peter and had a chance, even though I thought he had the better car. On a restart, he just got on the gas before I did and that was the difference. But it was like a win again. I never expected anything more than third. I was happy.\u201d
\nHaley started the happiness in his racing career when he competed in the Wild Thing Karts at Stafford Motor Speedway. He won 30 races and grabbed three track championships before moving to the Legends in 2013.
\n\u201cThe Legends car is one of the hardest to drive, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d Haley said. \u201cIf you can win in a Legends car, you can win in anything.\u201d
\nHaley\u2019s sponsors include Mac Electric of Coventry and Northeast Truck and Off Road of New London. His teammates include his girlfriend Morgan, His parents, Billy, Tyler, his spotter Glen, Jags and Jason Palmer, Jeff Jordan and Dennis Lambert.
\n\u201cI just want to keep doing what I\u2019m doing and stay consistent,\u201d Haley said.
\nHaley is also serving as a mentor to another young driver, Tyler Palmer of Watertown, who is in his first season of Legends after competing in the Wild Thing Karts.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve taken him under my wing and I\u2019ve tried to coach him and give him advice,\u201d Haley said.
\nTelling him that sometimes you have to slow down to go faster is a good place to start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Haley on a Legends hot streak WATERFORD \u2014 Sometimes you have to slow down to go faster. That was the advice Colin \u201cThe Comet\u201d Haley of Ashford received during a trip to North Carolina last fall. It\u2019s a philosophy that helped him earn three straight podiums in the Legends division at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-waterford-speedbowl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23700,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23699\/revisions\/23700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}