- New crew chief Zakalowski, sponsor Gulfcoast Software join team -

SHELBY, N.C. (February 21, 2012) – On February 25, NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) team MAKE Motorsports will kick off the 2012 season with a sponsorship from HBO and the hit comedy series “Eastbound & Down.”  In celebration of the HBO series’ season three debut on Feb. 19, the network will sponsor the #50 Chevrolet driven by T.J. Bell at DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway.

The #50 Eastbound & Down / Make Motorsports Chevrolet features elements of lead character Kenny Powers’ prized jet ski, with a purple and leopard-print scheme, as well as the likeness of the “legend” himself, who also hails from Shelby, N.C.
“The name and likeness of Kenny Powers have long been associated with victory and success,” said Powers. “It’s pretty obvious why somebody would want to put a giant picture of my face on a tastefully decorated stock car.

“Best of luck to our driver, T.J. Bell. If he doesn’t win first place at Daytona, they must not have made that picture of my face big enough.”

Also making his debut with MAKE Motorsports is new crew chief Mark Zakalowski.  Mark “Z” as he’s known by the team has spent years in a variety of engineering capacities in racing, including time with Dale Earnhardt Inc., Haas CNC Racing and Robby Gordon Motorsports.  Zakalowski has had a long history with team owners Mark Beaver and Tracy Lowe, working with them on their Dirt Late Model machines that competed in the Prelude to the Dream event at Eldora Speedway.

Longtime sponsors Liberty Tire Recycling will be joined for the 2012 season by Gulfcoast Software Solutions, a leading provider of loss prevention software for all types of businesses and facilities.

“It’s been a whirlwind of activity in the last few months as MAKE Motorsports prepares for its first full season in the NASCAR Nationwide Series,” said Mark Beaver, co-owner and Shelby, N.C. native.  “Between our new crew chief Mark Z. and our partnership with Gulfcoast Software we are really building our team up to a high level.  And what a way to get started to have HBO chose our team to expose its hit show ‘Eastbound & Down’ to NASCAR fans.”

MAKE Motorsports was created in 2010 and initially participated in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS).  While the team will continue to run a limited NCWTS schedule, they will also be running for the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship on a full-time basis in 2012.

“Mark and I had been co-owners of a variety of teams in the past, but it’s really the creation of MAKE Motorsports, between his family and mine that has taken off,” said Tracy Lowe, co-owner and also a Shelby, N.C. native.  “We started off with such a small operation and are thankful that we could grow it with the assistance of NASCAR, Liberty Tire Recycling, Pro Cal and many others.”

Driver T.J. Bell has also been involved with MAKE Motorsports since its inaugural year, competing in six NCWTS races and six NNS races for the team in the last two seasons.

“To be a part of a team such as MAKE Motorsports from its first year, it’s just amazing to see how the team has evolved,” said Bell, who has driven in NASCAR since 2003 and has open-wheel and sports car racing on his resume, including driving in the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans.  “Mark and Tracy have put together a great operation out of literally nothing, and to see us be able to race at Daytona with an incredible sponsor lineup, especially HBO and ‘Eastbound & Down,’ I’m honored to be a part of it.”

Practice for the DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway begins at 9 a.m. (ET) on Thursday, Feb. 23, with final practice televised live on ESPN2 at 10 a.m.  Qualifying for the 300-mile event will take place on Friday the 24th at 2:05 p.m. and the race will take place on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 1:15 p.m.  Both qualifying and the race will be aired live on ESPN2.

About Eastbound & Down 
Sunday night HBO kicked off the third season of its hit half-hour comedy series about an arrogant, burned-out, former major-league pitcher named Kenny Powers (Danny McBride.)  Picking up a year after Season 2, which followed Kenny’s misadventures in Mexico, the third season finds Kenny back in action in the Carolinas, somehow resurrecting his baseball career as the closer for the minor-league Myrtle Beach Mermen.  Even as he tries to pass himself off as the “King of Myrtle Beach,” Kenny struggles to come to terms with growing older and accepting the responsibilities of being a new father.  “Eastbound & Down” airs on Sunday nights at 10pm ET/PT.

About Liberty Tire Recycling

Liberty Tire Recycling is the premier provider of tire recycling services in North America. By recycling more than 110 million tires annually, Liberty Tire reclaims about 1.5 billion pounds of rubber for innovative, eco-friendly products. The recycled rubber produced by Liberty Tire is used as crumb rubber and industrial feedstock for molded products; as tire-derived fuel for industrial kilns, mills and power plants; and as rubber mulch for landscaping and playgrounds. The company maintains a nationwide network of processing plants, and comprehensive door-to-door collection services. Liberty Tire Recycling is headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA. For more information, please visit www.LibertyTire.com.

About Gulfcoast Software Solutions

Gulfcoast Software Solutions’ flexible, innovative, leading edge Loss Prevention Software Suite features multiple device data mining, and a broad range of real time, event driven, local and enterprise tools that simplify LP operations, and pinpoint targeted activity for action. Gulfcoast’s state of the art Digital Video and Data Recorders feature best in class video compression and remote view technologies, and our innovative spirit and first to market reputation make us the right choice of major c-store, restaurant and retail chains nationwide.  Please visit www.gulfcoastsoftware.com for more information.

About MAKE Motorsports

Hailing from Shelby, N.C., MAKE Motorsports is a race team that competes in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.  The moniker “MAKE” is made up of the first letters of the first names of the owners’ children – Beaver’s son Mikey and daughters Amanda and Emily, and Lowe’s daughter Katelyn.  For more information about MAKE Motorsports, please visitwww.MAKEMotorsports.com, FaceBook page at www.facebook.com/MAKEMotorsports or via twitter@MAKEMotorsports.

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HICKORY, N.C. (April 29, 2011) – Eco-friendly action sports apparel brand Dirtball Fashion announces the creation of the “2 Piece and a Biscuit Tour,” a four-stop regional North and South Carolina skate competition that will award thousands of dollars in cash and prizes in three divisions. North Carolina-based Dirtball Fashion developed this concept as a way to highlight the talents of regionally-based skaters as well as to promote the importance of skate parks and environmental awareness in the Carolinas. Contributing to the effort and acting as competition MC will be local legendary skateboarder and Charlotte native Ray Goff.

“It’s important that the skating world knows that not all of the talent is based on the west coast,” said Goff, who has skated in over 250 contests including the Tampa Am, Dam Am and Dew Tour, as well as MCing more than 100 contests. “We’ve got some awesome talent right here in the Carolinas that my friends at Dirtball and Monster Energy will show you all this year.”

Four 2011 dates are confirmed – June 25 in Burlington, N.C. (We’re Board Skate Park); Aug. 12 in Brevard, N.C. (Zero Gravity Skate Park); Oct. 15 in Charlotte, N.C. (Grayson Skate Park); and Nov. 12 in Spartanburg, S.C. (Hot Spot Skate Park). The tour will award a purse of $10,000 to be distributed in prize money for all divisions, as well as more than $5,000 in product prizes, trophies and recognition as inaugural participants in the “2 Piece and a Biscuit Tour.”

Monster Energy recently joined Dirtball Fashion as a presenting partner of the tour. “When Joe presented the tour to us we knew we had a great thing to support,” said Monster Energy Field Marketing Manager, Cari Cellini. “For us it was right on point. A great tour that promotes the regional skate scene and environmental awareness, as well as partnering with a brand like Dirtball that truly supports the local skate scene is going to be exciting.”

Dirtball Fashion founder and president Joe Fox has a long history in action sports. After decades of racing sports cars, in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and as a racing instructor, Fox spread his entrepreneurial wings to create Hickory, North Carolina-based Dirtball Fashion. Products went on sale in 2008 and the current lineup includes T-shirts, shorts, hats, knits, water proof shells, pants and shirts, all made with 100% recycled content – making Dirtball the “greenest” action sports brand around.

“Dirtball is proud to have created what will be the only Carolina skate tour of its kind,” said Fox. “With the help of our partners at Monster Energy, Hot Spot convenient stores and Action Sports Now as well as local celebrities such as Ray Goff and the incredible folks who manage the skate parks, we will bring some much-needed attention to the skate scene in the Carolinas and give the sport a little eco-friendly southern style!”

For full information, sign up sheets, judging and division information regarding the Dirtball “2 Piece and a Biscuit Tour presented by Monster Energy,” visit www.dirtballfashion.com.

SPRING BRANCH, Tex. (December 8, 2009) – Fulfilling a life’s dream to give back to his community, to assist children in their time of need and to educate and impart a passion for the outdoors, Wally Dallenbach Jr., former NASCAR driver and current broadcast commentator, businessman and family man, is proud to announce the creation of the Wally Dallenbach Jr. Foundation..  The mission of the 501(c)(3) charitable organization is to give children who have lost a parent the opportunity to learn about the outdoors, their heritage and their late parent’s passion through hunting and fishing expeditions.

The idea for the Wally Dallenbach Jr. Foundation was created when Dallenbach was making an appearance at a Bass Pro Shops store.  There, Dallenbach was approached by a little boy.  In his discussion with the child, Dallenbach learned that the boy had lost his father, an avid outdoors enthusiast.  Trying to learn more about his father’s life and passion, the boy insisted that he and his mother visit the outdoors store to enjoy a shopping experience that the boy had once with his father.  Unfortunately, the boy’s father passed on before they were able to have a “father-son outdoors adventure.”

Dallenbach was moved by the boy’s story and since then he has heard many more just like it – missed opportunities due to the untimely passing of a loved one.  Instead of merely listening, he decided to do his part to assist these kids, as well as their surviving parent, through the creation of the Wally Dallenbach Jr. Foundation.

“I thought about the experiences that I heard from families and reflected on how I learned to hunt and fish with my father, and passed along my love for the outdoors to my three children,” said Dallenbach, who is also President of the Foundation.  “The outdoors has changed my life – it’s given me respect for nature, brought me closer to my family and has been a positive influence that cannot be replaced.  It is the effect of the outdoors on me that caused me to create the Wally Dallenbach Jr. Foundation, with its mission to bring children who have lost a parent, as well as the surviving parent, on an outdoors adventure that they would remember for a lifetime.”

A Wally Dallenbach Jr. Foundation program will include travel to an outdoors location for the children and a parent or guardian, professional instruction and a full immersion experience in the outdoors.  Every aspect of the program will be paid for by the Foundation, including travel, accommodations and applicable permits – allowing the child and their surviving parent/guardian free to experience healing from their grief, while learning new skills in an experience of a lifetime.

Led by outdoors experts, including Dallenbach himself, in some of the world’s most beautiful locations, the children who experience a Foundation program will come away with:

• A respect and love for the outdoors and all it represents.
• Useful new skills.
• Additional understanding of their lost parent and a new respect for the lost parent’s outdoors passion.

“Hopefully the kids attending a Foundation program will have a great time and gain a new appreciation for the outdoors, as well as experiencing a time of closeness with their surviving parent or closure with their lost parent,” said Dallenbach.  “The Foundation’s goal is to give back to the kids, the overall community and to the outdoors, all of which has given so much to me and my family.”

The Wally Dallenbach Jr. Foundation also features a board of directors with representatives from the outdoors retail world, television executives and other captains of industry, all of whom will take an active role in the enhancement and continuity of the Foundation.

About Wally Dallenbach Jr.

Wally Dallenbach, Jr., 46, is a racer, a television personality, spokesperson, business owner and a dedicated family man.  From his roots in Basalt, Colorado, Wally became an avid outdoorsman at the age of eight and has always remained true to his roots as an outdoors advocate.  He has served as spokesperson for Bass Pro Shops and creator and star of Track and Trail Adventures with Wally Dallenbach, an outdoors television show which aired for nine years.

Wally has hunted and fished all over the world, and thanks to those experiences and the friends he’s made, many of the top outdoors companies, ranches and outfitters will be taking an active role in the Wally Dallenbach Jr. Foundation.  Wally also enjoys the outdoors with his three kids and looks forward to sharing his experiences with program participants.

Wally’s racing career spans more than 20 years with more than 300 starts, 27-plus wins, and career earnings far in excess of $6 million, in some of the most competitive racing series in the world, including 226 starts in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and runs in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, NASCAR Camping World Series, IMSA GTS and GTU, Champ Car, IROC and SCCA Trans-Am.  Wally has driven for some of the biggest names in motorsports, including Jack Roush, Rick Hendrick and Richard Petty.

His racing highlights include four class wins at the grueling Rolex 24 at Daytona, three class wins at the 12 Hours of Sebring, two SCCA Trans-Am Series championships (was the youngest ever champion at a mere 22 years of age) and an open-wheel class win at the Pike Peak International Hill Climb.

In 2001, NBC / TNT lured Wally away from full time driving and into the TV broadcast booth as an expert on-camera NASCAR commentator. He has also announced for the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), Champ Car World Series (CCWS), and the Championship Off Road Racing Series (CORR), among others.

MONTEREY, Calif. (August 14, 2009) – The International Motor Sports Association Grand Touring Prototype (IMSA GTP) race cars of the 1980s and 1990s were the most technologically advanced racing machines of their time.  These brutal and beautiful cars, from manufacturers such as Porsche, Jaguar, Nissan, Chevrolet and Mazda, were the “war horses” of the world’s top drivers as they did battle on some of the most renowned and storied race tracks.

The stout competition of the time captured the imagination of racing fans worldwide then, and now racing journalist Marshall Pruett has created an Internet-based “home” to celebrate this era at www.GrandTouringPrototype.com. The site launches during the 36th Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, where a field of more than 30 historic IMSA GTP cars will take the green flag and fight once again.

Pruett, the Auto Racing Editor for SPEED Channel’s website, founded GrandTouringPrototype.combased on his enthusiasm for sports cars in general, especially the GTP era.  “I grew up a racing fan, my father was an amateur racer, and before I became a journalist I was a mechanic, engineer and team manager in the open-wheel ranks, but sports cars have always been my passion,” Pruett said. “And while I only worked in the GTP category for a short while, I lived and breathed IMSA and I loved GTP.  The purpose of this site is not only to share that enthusiasm, but celebrate a magical time in racing for fans, drivers and teams.”

GrandTouringPrototype.com was created to fill a void in the sports car racing enthusiast community – although IMSA GTP has been covered by other sites, there was not a place for those in the sport to “relive their memories” of the heroic battles between U.S., European and Asian manufacturers.  Pruett’s site goes well beyond basic information, with content contributed by the era’s drivers, team members, manufacturer representatives, component makers and especially the fans, who filled stands and streets to see the series run in its glory.   “There is a community out there who want to share their experiences with IMSA GTP, from behind the wheel or sitting in the grandstands, so the site is relying on its fans to ‘fill in the holes’ – for example, we have been lent dozens of original race broadcasts that we will be digitizing and posting as well as hundreds of pictures,” Pruett said proudly.

“The site launches with more than 36 hours of GTP race footage and special features that are thrilling for the longtime fan, but also will expose a ‘new generation’ of sports car fans of what it was like on-track a mere 15 to 20 years ago,” he added.

Pruett’s effort has not gone unnoticed by the competitors of the era. “I’m really glad that someone has taken the time to put together a GTP web site that will show new fans of sports car racing what they are missing!” said Tony Dowe, former Team Manager of Tom Walkinshaw Racing, which fielded the factory Jaguar effort with a series of XJR prototypes.  ”Times have changed, but the raw power, downforce levels and the sheer spectacle that these cars brought to North American racing had to be seen to be believed.  I hope that the site will encourage fans to visit historic events and catch sight of some of these awesome machines.”

“I’m glad I was able to be part of that period in sports car racing,” Dowe added.  “I look forward to reading about the races I was at from the other side of the fence.”

Pruett has been working hard to continue the growth of GrandTouringPrototype.com and, with the approval from the American Le Mans Series (IMSA owners), has been conducting exclusive interviews and writing features on the series as well as posting more than 1000 pictures and video.  “I have been amazed at how many people have stories and materials to share,” Pruett said.  “I’m drawing heavily from my personal archives, but our initial readers have already made a huge impact. 25 pounds of racing videocassettes have been sent to me by a Canadian fan, old press kits have been provided by my fellow journalists, IMSA’s offering up their materials and records, as well as the generosity of those involved in the series are willing to sit down and talk.  With the help of our readers, we hope to bring a completevideo library to the web, and there will certainly not be a shortage of GTP material on the site!”

Future plans for Pruett include expanding the site beyond the GTP ranks to include the IMSA GTO and GTU series, as well as Group C/WSPC.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (July 14, 2009) – With tough economic times come creative solutions, and Passe Consulting Incorporated (PCI) is ready to delve into these uncharted waters. Led by experienced public relations and business consultant Dan Passe, PCI features staff expertise in a variety of fields, including legal, management, public relations, communications and marketing.
“PCI’s goal is to provide professional marketing communications assistance and consulting services, with a focus on client ROI and effective strategies,” said company president Dan Passe, who also is a North Carolina-licensed attorney. “With our low-overhead company structure, we are able to offer top-echelon service to our clients and partners while respecting today’s economic challenges.”

PCI is currently handling management and business affairs for race car driver and television personality Wally Dallenbach Jr. and his family, as well as providing public relations and consulting activities for eco-friendly clothing company Dirtball Fashion and energy-drink manufacturer Game Juice. PCI has also provided communications consulting to the new U.S.-based Formula One Team and AMCI.

Joining PCI’s network of affiliates is Performance Logistics, led by John Harper, who has more than 15 years of experience operating mobile marketing, show car and grassroots programs for established automobile manufacturers such as Ford and Toyota; and Lost Dog Communications, a companyestablished in 1997 that has been generating press materials and speeches utilized around the world for automotive OEMs. These experts, along with affiliated legal/accounting operations and an extensive
network of freelance talent, provide clients with a scalable, creative, passionate, dedicated, resultsoriented team ready to take on any challenge or project.

“PCI’s network of professionals allows the company to be a ‘one-stop shop’ for all of a client’s needs or to provide targeted support in a given area,” Passe said. “Whether a client needs a PR representative for a race team, communications strategy, a press release, driver management, an automotive driving event, a speech, presentation, or an independent contractor agreement, PCI is ready to deliver results.”