“The ultimate,” was how Mark Reynolds described his weekend in Alabama for the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Talladega 500. Mark and his friend Dale Stottlemyer were the winners of the 2011 East Mountain High School NASCAR raffle.

The grand prize in the raffle was a trip for two to the Talladega 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway, courtesy of track builder Bill Moss. The prize packaged included two seats in Bill Moss’s luxury box for the Camping World Truck Series Race on Saturday, October 22^nd and the Talladega 500 on Sunday, October 23^rd, along with airfare, car rental and accommodations at the Doubletree Hotel in Birmingham. Overall, the package was valued at over $2,000 per person.

Said Reynolds, “The hospitality you just couldn’t believe. Bill picked us up at the hotel on Saturday morning and we got to drive right into the track. The luxury box was all the food you could eat and anything you wanted to drink. We met Bobby Allison and toured the pits and the International Motor Sports Hall of Fame. We had a great time.”

Moss, one of the legends of NASCAR, built the Talladega Superspeedway in 1969 at the request of Bill France. Today, he is internationally known as a racetrack designer and builder through his company, William Moss Civil Engineering. He donated his luxury box to East Mountain High School for the raffle, while Rio Grade Travel donated airfare and car rental and the Doubletree Hotel donated accommodations.

Emeritus East Mountain High School Foundation Board Member Carolyn Crombie organized the raffle, which raised over $7,500 for the Foundation. “We are so grateful to Bill Moss and all the generous individuals and business who made the raffle a success,” said Crombie. “We look forward to raffling this once-in-a lifetime experience again next year.”

“If you’re not already a NASCAR fan,” said Reynolds, “you will be after a trip like this. We just really got the royal treatment.”