TRINITY, N.C. (July 15, 2002) -- In an announcement made earlier today, Bobby Labonte has entered into a partnership with Ron Stanley of Robbie Stanley Racing, Inc.  In an effort to assist Labonte with his son Tyler's aspirations of racing quarter midgets, the partnership was formed not only to accomplish that, but also in hopes of bringing quarter midget racing to the Southeast in a bigger and better way.

"We want to be able to help Ron start his business here in the Southeast and get his business going more than what it is today," said Labonte.  "It also helps if Tyler (Labonte) decides he wants to do this for several more years.  That will help me as I have a lack of time with my current race schedule to do a lot of other things, as you can imagine.  Ron and his entire family are a lot like the mine in that we grew up racing quarter midgets and have a love of the sport."

"Then there is the possibility of us helping build a quarter-midget facility in the Concord, NC area," continued Labonte.  "I am very excited about this.  If this does actually happen, we will have a place that is a little more local for Ron to go, not just to help Tyler and his budding career, but since he is building the actual cars, he can be there to assist others just getting into the sport as well.  Being able to announce this deal is really exciting for me.  I am looking forward to working with Ron and his entire family on this project and have a great feeling about what we are trying to accomplish."

Stanley Racing was founded in 1977.  Over the next 19 years, they became the leading manufacturers of quarter midgets in the United States.  In fact, most of the technology used in today's quarter midgets was first designed and implemented at Robbie Stanley Racing.  In 1994, however, the untimely and tragic death of  Ron's son, Robbie, a three-time USAC Sprint Car Series champion, resulted in Stanley Racing ceasing operation.

After a six-year absence, though, Stanley racing reopened with Robbie's brother, Ryan, running the family business.  Many of today's accomplished race car drivers started their careers in a Stanley-built quarter midget.  Some of the names happen to include Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, Stevie Reeves, Andy Hillenburg, as well as the late Kenny Irwin and Robbie Stanley.

"We are very excited to be able to form this partnership with Bobby," explained Ron Stanley.  "I look forward to being able to try and help Bobby with Tyler's future career.  I think our families are very similar in terms of our backgrounds and, hopefully, together we can help Tyler and also bring quarter midget racing to the Carolina's like it has never been done before."