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| Earl Pearson Jr. and the Bobby Labonte Racing Team heads to 311 Speedway and the Colossal 100 | ARCHDALE, NC (April 17, 2007)- Earl Pearson Jr. and the Bobby Labonte Racing Team will travel to 311 Speedway in Madison, NC for a pair of 35-lap features paying $5,000 to win each feature on Wednesday April 18th. From there Earl and the team will compete in the 2nd Annual "Colossal 100" at the Lowes Dirt Track on Friday and Saturday April 20-21st.
This years "Colossal 100" is sanctioned by the World of Outlaws Late Model Dirt Series and will pay $50,000 to win the 100-lap feature event. Earl's primary sponsor LifeLong Locks will have a display booth at the Colossal 100 and a full size replica dirt late model racecar simulator for fans to ride. Fans will also have a chance to win prizes including an autographed quarter panel off of Earl's racecar from the speedweeks event at East Bay Raceway this past February.
Earl Pearson Jr.'s official merchandise vendor ASI Racewear will debut a new T-Shirt design of Earl at the Colossal 100 event and continue to offer numerous merchandise apparel and souvenirs of the three time national champion and reigning World 100 Champion. Earl will also be a part of the Circle K Pit Party Autograph session on Saturday beginning at 4:30 under the main grandstands at the Lowes Dirt Track.
Earl and the Bobby Labonte Racing Team attempted to enter two events this past weekend. The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series sanctioned event on Saturday April 14th at Tazewell Speedway in Tazewell, TN was canceled due to rain and was rescheduled for July 6th. Earl and the team competed at Dublin Speedway in Dublin, NC on Friday April 13th in an unsanctioned $4000 to win feature event.
After qualifying on the pole position for the feature event using the Hoosier 1300 tire compound that track officials told the team would be legal to use, track officials decided to disqualify Earl's time and told him he had to start on the tail end of the feature using the track spec tires instead of the original tires they had told Earl he could use. Even though Earl disagreed with the track officials decision he was willing to purchase the track spec tires and compete, but the track did not have any tires available to purchase at the track in time for the feature event. Earl was left with no other choice but to load up and watch the feature event as a spectator.
"First I want to apologize to any of my fans that attended the Dublin event expecting to see me race. I really feel like the track officials and the track management made a poor decision to not allow me to compete. We purposely sent our tire guy to the track the week before and got a copy of the rules and asked what tires we could use. They told us 1300, 1350 and 1600 compounds. They did not mention anything about a spec tire.
We hot lapped and before qualifying was told we would have to use the 1300 track spec tire. We were willing to bolt those tires on but the track did not have any tires at the track and told me to just use what I had on the car to qualify with. Then right before the feature they told me that I was being put on the tail of the feature instead of starting on the pole and would still have to use the track spec tires, but they weren't at the track yet. So even though the track promoted and advertised me being at their race they refused to allow me to race with the tires they told me I could use, but worse than that they didn't have any track tires to purchase.
The Dublin event is exactly why I prefer to run sanctioned events like the Lucas Oil Series, WoO Series and Southern All-Star series because the rules and purses are always known and take the chance with some greedy race track promoter that changes the rules and purse structure after your already their", stated Earl.
Earl and the Bobby Labonte Racing Team would like to thank all their sponsors for their support in 2007. They include: LifeLong Locks, Mopar, Lucas Oil, Sunoco Race Fuels, Mastersbilt Race Cars, Larry Wallace Engines, Allstar Performance, Tiger Rear End, BERT, Butlerbuilt, Hyperco, Moroso, SHY, Wilwood, Woodward, TWM, Dyers Top Rods, Weld, Hoosier Tire, PRC, Jones Racing Products, Stealth, Trick, Wrisco, Sparco, Bell, Mechanix Wear, Oakley, Cherrios, Coke, Dunn-Benson Racing Supply, ASI Racewear, WRT Web Designs, The Decal Source, Rick Schwallie Photography and WD Enterprises.
For more information about LifeLong Locks and the strongest locks on the market today, visit www.lifelonglocks.com. For more information about Earl Pearson Jr. and the Bobby Labonte Racing Team and to view new photos from recent events visit their official website at www.bobbylabontemotorsports.com.
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