Pearn hot to test car in Florida

Wed, February 7, 2007

By JIM CRESSMAN, FREE PRESS SPORTS REPORTER
   

 
Cole Pearn has found a way to beat the cold.

He and his race team left last night for New Smyrna Beach, Fla., to participate in the World Series of Asphalt Racing during Speed Week.

"This is the earliest we've ever got a race car together, so it's pretty exciting and it's always fun running down in the States," said Pearn, the youngest driver to win the Delaware Speedway late model title at 18 in 2001.

"This is a pretty reputable event and it will help get us ready for Delaware (which opens May 4)."

Pearn, who returned to Delaware in 2005 after a three-year absence while he was in the CASCAR Super Series, competed three times in the U.S. last season in the Mid-Atlantic Asphalt Racing Association (MAARA) in Holland, N.Y., Lancaster, N.Y., and Jennerstown, Pa.

He'll do nine of 11 MAARA races this year on Saturday nights. The two others conflict with Fridays at Delaware.

"Delaware will still be the priority," said Pearn, now 24 and a recent mechanical engineering graduate from the University of Waterloo.

He works in equipment design improvements and product management at Toyota in Cambridge and will transfer in May to the new plant project in Woodstock.

Toyota makes its debut in NASCAR Nextel Cup and the Busch Series at Daytona this month but for now Pearn will stick with his McColl-built Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

Toyota trucks have been in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for three years, "but they haven't worked their way onto short tracks yet. Maybe some day," he said.

Pearn, from Mt. Brydges, loaded his new ride into the hauler last night at McColl's in London and tomorrow's practice day will be his first chance to test the car.

"If we started building it any earlier, we'd still be at the same point," he said. "It's just how race cars go. You're always last-minute. We're taking a lot of different options . . . We'll play around and hopefully learn something (about the car) down there."

The late models will run seven of the nine nights of the world series.

"This is the first year they've allowed the crate motor (which many now use at Delaware) and the rules are pretty similar, so it's easy for us to go."