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Earl Pearson celebrates his first-ever East Bay victory Tuesday 2-06-07
Ricksdarkroom.com
Earl Pearson, Jr. Breaks Through With First Ever Win East Bay Winternationals
Win
TAMPA, FL (February 6, 2007)- Two-time and defending Lucas Oil Late Model
Dirt Series National Champion, Earl Pearson, Jr. of Jacksonville, FL scored his
first ever win at East Bay Raceway Park on Tuesday Night during the 31st
Annual Winternationals for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. Pearson’s win
was his sixth career Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory and his first driving
for car owner, Bobby Labonte. Pearson took the lead at the beginning of the 30
lap $5,000 to win main event and led every lap. The 35 year old racer drove the
LifeLong Locks, MOPAR, Lucas Oil Products, Sunoco Race Fuels, Allstar
Performance, Dunn-Benson Motorsports, Larry Wallace Racing Engines,
MasterSbilt Dodge Charger to victory lane over Steve Francis of Ashland, KY
who finished second in his Valvoline/Custom Race Engines/Rocket GTO.
Finishing third was Moss, TN’s Ricky Arms in the Tom Herron/Perfect Wall,
Inc/MastersBilt GTO with Don O’Neal of Martinsville, IN in the Jerry Jones/Jones
Core/MasterSbilt Monte Carlo and Shannon Babb of Moweaqua, IL in the Bill
Moyer/Car City/C.J. Rayburn Monte Carlo completing the top five drivers. A total
of 92 entries were on hand for the second night of Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt
Series action at East Bay.
Pearson drew the pole among the eight heat race winners as Terry Casey would
line up beside him on the start. The caution came out with one lap scored for
Damon Eller and then on the restart several cars were involved in a wreck in turn
four. Two straight cautions came on lap three and four as the anxious drivers
would see four cautions in the first four laps of the race.
The race then settled for a run of 11 green flag laps with Pearson on the point
followed by Francis, Casey, Arms and Don O’Neal. There was no movement in
the top five until Dan Schlieper went around O’Neal on lap 11 for fifth. Pearson
then started to work lapped traffic by lap 14 and then caution number five came
out on lap 15 which would clear Pearson’s path in front of him.
O’Neal got back into the top five on lap 16 passing Schlieper for that spot. The
sixth and final caution came out on lap 20 for Casey who gave up a strong run as
he slid to a stop in turn three after he had run several laps in that position with
left front suspension damage. That moved Arms into third with O’Neal and
Shannon Babb up to fourth and fifth with ten laps remaining in the race.
On the restart Pearson would again pull away from Francis and set sail to the
checkered flag as he would finally breakthrough at East Bay for his first ever win
at the track in his home state. Francis finished a solid second followed by
another impressive run for Arms who bettered his sixth place finish on opening
night with a third place. O’Neal and Babb would round out the top five.
Pearson in victory lane thanked all of sponsors and crew for their outstanding
work with his new race team. “I want to thank my crew chief, Jason Fitzgerald,
Matt and Regan and everybody else with Bobby Labonte Racing for this
opportunity.” “I just wanted to get out in front and with the way the track was I
knew it was important to get off to a good start, but then again we got off good
last night, but we didn’t win.”
Completing the top ten were Dan Schlieper, Matt Miller, Josh Richards, Anthony
White and Donnie Moran.
In preliminary action Billy Drake was the LifeLong Locks Fast Time Award Winner
with a qualifying lap of 14.894 seconds. The Hawk Brake and Quarter Master
Sponsored Heat Race Winners were Shannon Babb, Terry Casey, Matt Miller,
Earl Pearson, Jr., Dan Schlieper, Steve Francis, Don O’Neal and Ricky Arms.
The Mason Racin’ Rebel Shock Dyno and Penske Shocks B-Main Sponsored
Winners were Josh Richards, Terry English, Steve Shaver and Patrick Sheltra.
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series returns to action at East Bay on
Wednesday Night, February 7th with a complete show of LifeLong Locks Time
Trials, Hawk Brake and Quarter Master sponsored Heat races, Mason Racin’
Rebel Shock Dyno and Penske Shocks sponsored B-Mains Performance Rod
and Custom Strawberry Dash and the $5,000 to win A-Main.
Catch all of the action of the 31st Annual East Bay Winternationals live on the
internet all week long at http://www.racetalklive.com/.
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