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Golden Isles Speedway Opens 2008 Racing Season with Mega-Event
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Golden Isles Speedway Opens 2008 Racing Season with Mega-Event Drawing Fans and Teams from Across North America Including Star-Studded List of Racing Stars Entered to Gun it Out for Big Bucks & Place in History during January 23rd - February 2nd Action
(Brunswick, Georgia - January 2, 2008) Just three weeks away from the opening events of the American Short Track Racing season, eyes and ears throughout the racing industry are focused on the 2008 SuperBowl of Racing scheduled for Golden Isles Speedway.
The huge series of ten nights of Super Late Model action on the Georgia coast will offer race teams the unprecedented opportunity to compete for over a half-million dollars in purse monies while encamped at the same racing facility during the span of a week and a half.
With the most recognized names in the short track racing game already entered into the ten nights of intense and lucrative racing, along with surprise appearances by a handful of the sports biggest stars of stock car racing including some of NASCAR's most respected drivers and car owners, the historic series of events will feature nightly battles for the Super Late Model drivers with each night offering a minimum of ten-thousand dollars to the main event winner.
Drivers from over twenty states and Canadian provinces have already filed entries into the mega-racing festivities as the new 2008 season kicks off at the famed racing facility located just west of Brunswick, Georgia.
The overall magnitude of this unprecedented event has been one of the most talked about grass roots racing topics in the nation during recent years and with overall purse payouts slated at over a half-million dollars teams have Golden Isles Speedway's SuperBowl of Racing boldly marked on the calendars of race teams and fans for the week and a half period of January 23rd through February 2nd, 2008.
Championship super late model pre-entries into the high-profile series of dramatic racing events include Scott Bloomquist, Billy Moyer, Earl Pearson, Steve Francis, Donnie Moran, Ivedent Lloyd, Jimmy Owens, Chris Madden, Josh 'Kid Rocket' Richards, Dan Schlieper, Clint Smith, Rick Eckert, Shane Clanton, Dennis Erb Jr., Ray Cook, Darrell Lanigan, Brady Smith, Tim Fuller, Steve Shaver, Darren Miller, Billy Decker, Ricky Elliott, Danny Johnson and over two-dozen additional challengers already pre-entered.
In addition, a long list of other title-holders, outlaw racing bad boys and young guns are heading to Golden Isles Speedway to commence their 2008 season of competition, including Shannon Babb, Freddy Smith, Matt Miller, Randle Chupp, Ricky Weeks, Skip Arp, Dennis 'Rambo' Franklin, Wendell Wallace, Randy Weaver, Don O'Neal, Jeremy Miller, Ricky Weeks, Casey Roberts, Ed Basey, Jeff Cooke, Johnny Collins, Anthony White, Dillon Wood and Tyler Ivey.
Of the drivers already entered, over two dozen national championships are represented as well as hundreds of major national feature event wins among the Who's Who list of national stars of the sport.
In addition to the SuperLateModels in action for each of the ten nights of spectacular racing, the Limited Late Models of the National Late Model Series (NLMS) tour will compete with five nights of features scheduled (Wednesday-Saturday, Jan 23-26 & Saturday, Feb 2); plus Crate Late Models are slated for three nights (Monday-Wednesday, Jan 28-30) and the Open Wheel Modified stars will be in action for four straight nights (Monday-Thursday, Jan 28-31).
Grandstand gates open at 4:00 each day with Racing beginning at 6:00 p.m. during the January 23rd through February 2nd schedule of events at Golden Isles Speedway.
In addition to the winner's share of ten thousand dollars per night on each of the ten nights of action, the events will be sanctioned by the O'Reilly Auto Parts sponsored Southern All-Stars Series and the United Midwestern Promoters (UMP) and provides hefty rewards for all of the competitors throughout the finishing order in each of the scheduled ten nights.
In addition to each night's winning purses, the cumulative point standings from each of the ten nights will reward the driver posting the highest overall performance with an added $10,000.00 award for the SuperBowl of Racing IV events.
As if that wasn't sufficient incentive, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series will include each of the events during the Golden Isles Speedway SuperBowl of Racing IV as part of the annual 'WinterNationals' driver's championship at East Bay Raceway in Tampa, Florida.
This means that the results posted by drivers during the SuperBowl of Racing IV will have a major bearing on what drivers will be in contention for even more winnings during "WinterNationals' title at East Bay at Tampa Fl..
Drivers from all over the United States are excited about the opportunity to compete in SuperBowl of Racing IV for such lucrative purses for such an extended period of time without having to bear the expense of traveling up and down the highway to do so.
"This is a fantastic opportunity for teams to race for early season wins and a whole lot of money," states 3-time consecutive national champion Earl Pearson Jr. who is a native of nearby Jacksonville, Florida. "Everyone in the industry is anxious to be a part of this huge event which has never been done before. I'm just really glad that it will give me a chance to race on familiar ground going against all of the biggest guns in the sport in such a high dollar event," said Pearson, who drives the Bobby Labonte Motorsports owned Dodge sponsored by LifeLong Locks and MOPAR.
Pearson's team owner Bobby Labonte will be on hand to witness the action, but several of his NASCAR rivals will be in action at Golden Isles Speedway including Ken Schrader, David Reuitmann, Kenny Wallace and others.
With the interest and participation in the Dirt Late Model segment of the industry at an all-time high, fans can expect to see a handful of other NASCAR Sprint Cup and NASCAR Nationwide Series competitors strap into the 800 horsepower dirt late models and get in on the action at Golden Isles Speedway.
Two-Time Dirt Track World Champion Shannon Babb of Mowequa, Illinois has moved into a new role to drive for NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Clint Bowyer as his new team owner, while Tennessee's Randy Weaver has partnered with NASCAR pilot David Stremme in their new dirt racing efforts. Ryan Newman, Bill Elliott, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and numerous other NASCAR favorites own and/or compete in Dirt Late Model race cars and any are likely candidates to pay a surprise visit or two as competitors in action during the 2008 SuperBowl of Racing.
Golden Isles Speedway has benefited from the input of a lot of the nation's leading racers as well as owners and promoters of other successful race tracks around the nation. NASCAR Nextel Cup Series veteran Ken Schrader, who is also involved in ownership of I-55 Raceway (Pevely, Missouri), Paducah Raceway (Paducah, Kentucky) and Macon Speedway (Macon, Illinois) has been of great assistance with suggestions and insight to Frankie Lloyd's continuing efforts at Golden Isles Speedway.
Schrader has competed at the speedy and competitive track during past seasons as part of his storied grass roots racing career and plans on continuing his visits to Golden Isles Speedway during next winter's SuperBowl of Racing IV.
"The changes in the race track itself will serve to help all of the race teams," points out Schrader. "Golden Isles has long been known for its high speeds yet the track's new configuration will make the racing even more competitive without taking such a toll on race engines and the race team's budgets. Frankie (Lloyd) and his crew have listened to the needs of the racers and it will pay off in the long run and provide excitement for the fans. I'm looking forward to being back down at Brunswick during the January and February events," says Schrader.
The track is located in the heart of a year-round tourism hotbed, just west of the traditional vacation spots of St. Simons Island and Jekyll Island, Georgia. Situated on U.S. Highway 82 and twelve miles west of Interstate 95 and Brunswick, Georgia the Golden Isles Speedway offers a premium location for traveling race fans and campers en route to Florida's huge gathering of auto racing enthusiasts in February. Action-packed high speed drama goes hand in hand with Golden Isles Speedway just as the fresh seafood and southern hospitality enjoyed by visiting racers and fans to the area.
"It's a great atmosphere when we race in the Golden Isles," points out one of short track racing's all-time greats Scott Bloomquist. "The speeds on the track are as exciting to us as much as to the fans and we've been able to get our seasons started on the right note down there while also enjoying the area during our visits to the coast," Bloomquist points out. "We've had a lot of success at Golden Isles Speedway in the past and we're definitely going to be focused to take all the money we can out of Brunswick next winter. Ten grand to win on ten different nights is a real big deal to all of the race teams and it's going to be big - something that's never happened before in our sport," said Bloomquist.
Reserved Grandstand Tickets and Trackside Tailgate Parking spots for the SuperBowl of Racing IV events are available and can be obtained by calling the Golden Isles Speedway office at (912) 778-3767 or via e-mail at goldenislesspeedway@btconline.net. All major credit cards are accepted; for additional event information check out  www.goldenislesspeedway.com.

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