By By Matthew Nascone
Anyone who walks through the doors of the Chuck Stevens Chevrolet dealership in Atmore will go home with four tickets to the inaugural Chuck Stevens Chevrolet 100 at the Deep South Speedway in Loxley.
Chuck Stevens general manager and owner Chad Bartz said there will be 200 tickets available for the March 13-14 race days.
"We are excited to be a part of the event," Bartz said. "There is a purse of $80,000, which has brought some of the big-time racers. We think that is exciting for the community."
Bartz said Chuck Stevens has sponsored races at the track in the past, but the opportunity to be the title sponsor came about with the new ownership at the track. New track owner Bill Webb contacted the dealership about the sponsorship opportunity.
The track is expecting more than 150 cars attempting to take home the prizes and part of the $80,000 in tow and non-qualifier money.
There will be many divisions of cars at the event, including, late model cars running crate Chevy engines, super late model, open-wheel modified, super hobby, hobby stock, stinger and vintage.
The weekend schedule begins March 13 with open practice and set-up for the cars that will be racing. There will be free entry to the grandstands and $10 admission for pit entry.
On Friday the time trials and qualifying races will be held for the crate late models, super late models and the open-wheel modified. Feature races will be held in the vintage, super hobby, hobby stock and stinger classes.
The races held on Saturday will be the last chance races for the crate, super and modified classes with feature events for the vintage and limited sportsman classes. The finale races will have a 100-lap event for the crate late models, a 40-lap event for the unlimited super late models and a 40-lap event for the open-wheel modifieds.
There will be a go-kart unit on hand with the Baldwin County Shrine Club Friday and Saturday nights. Fireworks will also be featured.
The gates open at noon each day with racing beginning at 7 p.m. Concessions are available and racing souvenirs will be available from outside vendors.
Bartz said there was one simple reason why Chuck Stevens got involved with the Deep South Speedway.
"A lot of our customers enjoy racing and are race fans, so that is why we said yes when we got the call to sponsor," Bartz said.