By By Matthew Nascone
There were more sports to watch than the Super Bowl last weekend, at least in Atmore.
The Atmore Motocross held its first race of the spring season Feb. 5 in front of more than 900 people. The 29 races included 160 riders from the 4-year-old little tike to the 40-something old man.
"This was the smoothest race we have had so far," racetrack co-owner Bobby Hadley said. "We are learning how to make these work as we go along."
John Chance had a more simple feeling about the weekend.
"It was a blast," he said.
Chance helps Hadley and the other owner Shane Hadley with maintenance and upkeep of the track.
The racers spanned the states of Alabama, Florida and Mississippi.
This race was the third big race since the track opened in November of 2005. Hadley said the track drew people even on what has been called the biggest weekend for professional sports, Super Bowl weekend.
"It was good to see so many people out and most of them were not even talking about the Super Bowl, they were talking about the races going on," Chance said.
It takes many people to make an event like this run smoothly and Hadley said he knows this.
"We would like to thank John Chance, James Hare, Steve Boutwell and Steve Hicks for all their help on race weekends and during the week," Bobby said. "We couldn't do this without all these guys."
Also helping the Hadleys for the weekend was Kelley's Ambulance Service.
"It was good to have Kelley's out there because it gave everybody a peace of mind that if something serious did happen there was someone there to help," Bobby said. "It especially put my mind at ease knowing that we could fix someone up quickly and on the spot if we needed to."
Before the action of the race is the worshipping of God and this is handled in a professional manner by Tony Jewah and Faith Racers Ministry. Jewah and his trailer travel all around the southeast preaching God's word to racers.
Now Jewah is one tough preacher according to Bobby.
"The man broke three ribs in practice on Saturday and he was still out there giving his sermon on Sunday," he said. "Now that is some dedication right there."
Jewah's services usually start around 7:30 a.m. as the many vendors available are preparing their delicious treats. Bobby said the food scene at a race is somewhat similar to the array of food at a carnival.
"We have everything from funnel cakes to boiled peanuts and everything in between," he said.
On hand for the race weekend were many sponsors including Fly Racing, Hall's Motorsports of Mobile and Kenny's Yamaha of Brewton.
Shane Hadley once said, "If people spread the word then we will get a lot of people out to see our races," and that statement rang true Sunday as many people came out to the track to watch the festivities.
Bobby said he is expecting the numbers to grow again for the next race event on March 19.
"We are expecting more people to come and our immediate plans are to build more bleachers for the people to sit in," he said. "We are having more locals come out to watch our riders and that is great."