After a fourteen month hiatus, former AMA number two Mike Hale was back on a racing motorcycle Monday at Daytona, and turning very respectable times.

"I had a good time today. We had a few things to sort through this morning, so maybe the rain delay wasn't so bad for us. I was pretty happy. With the way the bikes showed up, we had some work to do," Hale said. "A 1:52.11 ain't bad, with me being off the bike for a while."

Mike feels there's even more room for improvement on Tuesday. "I know I'm not hitting some of my markers because I know his place. Tomorrow I am going to do shake down this other bike, so we'll see. There were some things we wanted to do to this one but couldn't, but tomorrow we'll be headed in the right direction."

Hale hadn't ridden since the 1999 Argentine Grand Prix, but he's working on a deal that could have him racing the AMA and Pace series in 2001.

"What I envision is taking what I saw in GPs and World Superbike and the level of competition there, and try to bring in a corporate sponsor."

"We're looking at putting together a team. That's what we've been looking at doing, to do the AMA and possibly the PACE series," Mike said.

He also added that his participation was not yet a sure thing, but depended on acquiring corporate sponsorship. "It depends...we have some really good leads going. That's what we're doing here. We wanted to come down here because it is a first step. We want to show we can still get it on. I've wanted to get back on Dunlops, which I've been missing for like five years. This should help with the confidence of the corporate people."

"I want to do this thing first-class or we're not gonna do it. We've got a semi and the other stuff on order. I've got my people, or most of them. I feel confident that we're gonna do it right. If we only come up with three quarters of the budget, we're not going to do it." "

Hale isn't content just to make the show. "I don't race to just to go out there and do laps. I hate that. I want to do this and I want to get back to the front."

Mike feels he learned a great deal about racing in the last season when he was with Team Roberts. "That three cylinder, I had to work so hard on carrying the corner speed. The four cylinder guys could just put it in there, turn it, and just fire it off the corner," he says. "The only place you could make up time on those guys is to try to run it through the corners faster. I pushed myself as far as I ever did.

"To come within a couple of seconds of pole position on Kenny's bike ain't bad. It looks bad whenever your sitting there reading the time sheet, but when you go there and see it, it's a big accomplishment."