Trinity, N.C. (February 7, 2012) - Bobby Labonte Racing (BLR) will start its sixth consecutive dirt late model season this weekend when the team first travels to Brunswick, Ga., to compete in the Super Bowl of Racing this Sunday night. The team will then begin its Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Tour season in Florida during the annual DART Winternationals. Pearson Jr. and the crew plan to run on February 16, 17 and 18 at East Bay Raceway Park. BLR will take one day off to travel to Volusia Speedway Park near Daytona Beach where they will race each night February 20-25 in both UMP and World of Outlaw-sanctioned events.
The team begins the new season with two Longhorn chassis prepared. The primary car Pearson Jr. plans to race debuted in October of last year at The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway. In addition, the team will also have a new Longhorn chassis prepared to race.
Comments from Earl Pearson Jr. Heading into 2012:
"Going into the season we feel a lot better about our cars and the Longhorn chassis. During the end of the year we all got together, including Bobby, Terry and Justin (Labonte) and the guys on the team, and we just put our heads together. We made some adjustments to the chassis and raced a new car at Charlotte in October. We found out that we qualified better and raced better with the new car. That was a big difference in comparison to the rest of the year. It was an improvement and we felt like we made a better package.
"Going into this season, I'm ready to get back into this car. I think Bobby, Terry and Justin are happy about this chassis, too. We have a lot more confidence and we know that we have a good car ready to go. We built another new Longhorn that's the same. We'll use that as our second car and we're going to build a third Longhorn later on. We have a few engines from Larry Wallace again this year, and have a good plan on that side, too. Everything has come into place.
"Going down to Georgia and Florida, this is going to be a really good test for us to see where we stack up. We know there will be a lot of good cars in Georgia and also the usual tough crowd in Florida. We have run well at Golden Isle in the past, East Bay has been tough on us at times, but we've also won there, too. The biggest thing is just coming out of the gate strong. Guys like (Scott) Bloomquist and Jimmy Owens are always top-five each night. We need to stay with those guys at East Bay in the Lucas points races.
"If we can leave Florida with a few top-five finishes, we'll be happy. We need to be right there in the points battle with these guys and not be behind. It's hard to catch up in the Lucas Oil Series. But, like I said, we all feel pretty good and are ready to start the year."