While Bobby Labonte has always balanced life and racing throughout his career, the NASCAR champion is now finding a new balance on the seat of his bike, all for a good cause.
Labonte, through the Foundation that bears his name, is sponsoring his fourth annual charity bike ride, the Archdale Drug “Tour de Reason” which will be held on Saturday, October 4 in Trinity, North Carolina to raise dollars for good causes and cycling safety.
“I’ve been riding a bike for several years and loving doing it with friends and by myself,” Labonte said. “We started this event a few years ago and have continued to try to make it grow to help out our local community.”
“I started riding for health, exercise and enjoyment,” Labonte continued. “My brother-in-law got me involved in it a few years ago and I just got interested and kept doing it. It clears my head of things and is good therapy.”
Labonte not only finds personal balance on the seat of his bike but also is helping to balance the needs of his community and raising money to support them.
“One of the things that I think is really cool is that we help Randolph County’s Communities In Schools,” Labonte said. “We raise money for kids to have back packs that they can take home full of food on the weekend. There are 5,600 kids in Randolph County that go home for the weekends that don’t have food at home.”
According to Labonte, another organization that will benefit from his bike ride is the BIG program (Bicycling in Greensboro) which promotes cycling and bike safety as well.
Labonte credits the success of the bike ride to the staff at the Foundation, as well as all those who participate in the ride with him.
“I have good people working for me,” Labonte said. “I ride the bike and they make it all work. I ride my bike quite a bit and others know I do so they all come out and support the event. If it weren’t for the riders who give, donate and get sponsors to be on the ride, we would not be successful. It’s a group effort and that’s what we want to do in our area.”
While Labonte enjoys the balance that cycling gives him, he also gets his competitive juices going since the charity bike ride is a bit of a race as well.
“It’s a mapped out course but it is a timed event,” Labonte said. “We do this for enjoyment but we also want to see how fast we can go. We have riders that want to improve their times from previous years. If you did the ride in two hours last year, you want to do it in one hour and fifty-five minutes this year. So, you kind of measure your strength and fitness compared to last year as well. So, it’s a little bit of competition but we don’t want to make it full out. The race really is for all types of riders.”
“It is part of the package that they compete with me as well,” Labonte continued. “We had the Highpoint Cycling Classic a few years ago and some of the amateurs will ride in my ride. It’s just fun. Like anything else, bike riders are very nice people and they want to do things to help people out more than you can imagine.”
While Labonte finds balance through cycling and helping others, he is also looking for balance in his NASCAR life as well. Without a full-time ride currently, he is focusing on testing and his company Longhorn Chassis.
“I’ve been doing a lot of testing,” Labonte said. “I’ve run three races this year and I’m not sure if I’ll run anymore this year. And I’ve been doing other things and finding other things to do that I enjoy doing and haven’t gotten to do.”
“I’m still trying to figure that out,” Labonte continued. “It’s part of a balance that is sometimes good and sometimes bad. But I’m excited about the testing, which I’ve done last week, and it keeps me current in the race car. And when I watch the race, I have a feel for what the car looks like and feels like.”
In the meantime, the former NASCAR champ is focusing on his upcoming seat time on his bicycle, as well as hoping for good weather for the Saturday competition.
“You can go to http://bobbylabontefoundation.org/ and go online there and register or sign up the day of the event. We’re looking for a good weather day and this is the first time we’ve done it the first week in October,” Labonte said. “So, it’s a little bit later in the year and a little cooler. Before I had to do it after the All Star Race and now this will be on a Saturday. So, this will work out good and I hope we’ll have a lot of people coming in that we didn’t have last year.”
