A class of approximately 18 Alabama State Trooper Trainees and their instructors have been on site this week, completing segments of the police driving component in their training. The Trooper Trainees have been using roads inside and outside the track - including the infield road course - to simulate high-speed pursuits and other scenarios.

Trooper Lee McWaters, an Alabama State Trooper Academy instructor, said that this is the first time trainees have held driving training at Talladega Superspeedway, and the facility is perfectly suited to their needs.

According to McWaters, each class of Alabama State Trooper Trainees are expected to complete 24 weeks of Academy training leading up to a 10-week field training program. Typically the first two weeks of training consist of driving instruction, with the first week being skills courses set up at The Alabama Criminal Justice Training Center located at the former Craig Air Force Base in Selma, Ala. The second week focuses on high-speed pursuits, so the trainees can push the cars as much as they would be pushed in such a situation on the highway, McWaters explained.

"The only way we can do that is having a road course like we have here, where we can speed up and not be worried about traffic in a controlled environment," McWaters said. "For years we've had a flat road course at the Academy that we have used, but since Hurricane Katrina, FEMA came in and needed that area for temporary storage of mobile homes. That took all of our track, and we found ourselves needing to find another place to complete this type of training. We asked, and Talladega Superspeedway was kind of enough to let us utilize several of the roads on property, including this road course. You can't beat the experience they are getting here; since this course is actually not flat like the course we've used before, it is even more realistic. Hopefully we'll be able to do more training here in the future."

The trainees have been on property since Monday and expect to wrap up the instruction Thursday afternoon, McWaters said.

"We are glad that our facility has proven useful to the Academy. We work closely with the Alabama State Troopers every year in coordinating traffic during our major event weekends, and we appreciate all they do for us," said Talladega Superspeedway Vice President and General Manager Rick Humphrey. "They help us to ensure that our events run smoothly, and so when we learned they needed our help in this situation, we were glad to provide assistance."

Great seats still remain for the first race weekend at NASCAR's Most Competitive Track. Two-day Talladega Tower seats offering a spectacular view of the start/finish line are $135 and Allison Grandstand Seats are only $60. Two-day tickets are an even greater value than ever, as they grant admission to The Birmingham News Qualifying for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series and the Aaron's 312 NASCAR Busch Series race on Saturday, April 29, then the Aaron's 499 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race on Sunday, April 30.

Seats for Friday, April 28 are $12 for adults, and include admission to The Birmingham News Qualifying for the NASCAR Busch Series and two NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series practices. Kids age 11 and younger are admitted free of charge in the general admission grandstands on Friday and Saturday when accompanied by a paying adult.