Issue link: http://alabamapower.uberflip.com/i/999704
2 labama Power Engineer Samantha Whorton won a race at Barber Motorsports Park during Honda Indy Grand Prix week in a car she helped build. But it wasn't an Indy car. It was a foot-long handheld vehicle – called a Pinewood Derby Car – that raced down a 20-foot- long slide. A half-mile away, in the pits with the real Indy cars, another Alabama Power engineer – the recently retired Chuck Hurliman from Miller Steam Plant – was holding court as "paddock marshal," making sure fans steered clear of race cars poking through the pit area. A week later, Alabama Power Fleet Services Technical Engineer Ogonna Ezeokoli was in the same pit previously patrolled by Hurliman, armed with a measuring stick and clipboard conducting pre-race inspections on homemade, baery-powered cars in the annual Electrathon race. Whorton, Hurliman and Ezeokoli are just three of a host of Alabama Power and Southern Company employees who volunteer at Barber during the busiest month of the famed track's season. "I get to be a small part of a world-class racing event that takes place right here in Birmingham," said Jimmy Morrison, an engineer with Southern Company Services, who shules drivers, pit crews and fans from remote parking lots to the paddock at the Indy Grand Prix. "I get the chance to see people from all over the world, and share with new visitors, and returning visitors, my excitement for the event and Barber Motorsports Park," Morrison continued. "What I like about volunteering the most is I get to help make this event the best it can be by supporting those that make it possible: the fans and the drivers." While doing the same job Hurliman does, Morrison met Hall of Famers A.J. Foyt, Bobby Rahal, Rick Mears and Roger Penske; household names in Indy car racing from the 1970s and '80s. But it's not all fun and games. "The shule vans start at 6 a.m. because the crews start arriving that early," Morrison said. "I don't get out of bed that early on weekends. This is a small sacrifice, however." Furthermore, those like Morrison and Hurliman APC crew on hand for annual races, educational events at Barber track. Morrison Company sponsors Junior Clinic.