This weekend, Pepsi Corp with Lucasfilm Ltd. had a big promotion at a Nascar race in Talladega, Alabama . The #24 car of Jeff Gordon was painted with a Star Wars scheme including Yoda on the hood, and it raced only for this one event on Sunday.

On Friday a photo opp took place with Jeff Gordon and two
stormtroopers ( TK3331-Shannon Oliver and TK9978-Jeremy Reaves) They posed for numerous promotional pictures, then were escorted by Jeff to his trailer and given a short tour by Jeff and got autographs and all from him! A super individual and very appreciative of our trooper's help that day.

On Saturday, the smaller Busch series race was held and a dozen of 501st members were assigned to work the Pepsi Stage and Pepsi trailers in the corporate area. Members posed for thousands of photos, participated in the onstage antics throwing Pepsi-Jeff Gordon shirts, posters and other SWAG to enthusiastic crowds, etc.. Rain closed down the stage early but a fun time was had by all.

On Sunday for the big Nascar race, the Pepsi stage was packed for the duration with Jeff Gordon fans, and our 501st members commented they took as many or more photographs Sunday than at C3 ! The second Jeff Gordon Pepsi-StarWars painted car was present for pics with our costumed members also. Pepsi executives took a few members inside for pre-race activities, including a Nascar parade around the track, pictures with the fans in the garage areas, and the pit areas. Then one final photo opp with Jeff Gordon and the Star Wars Car just a few
seconds before Jeff climbed into the drivers seat to begin lining up for the race! Those members were (TK3331-Shannon Oliver, TK5773-Hawn Hester, BH-1128 Glenn Tamboia, and SL152-me,Bamatrooper). We made a lot of media coverage on Sunday and were spotted on all the local news outlets, ESPN, CNN, the Speed Channel , and as well as on Fox Sports who covered the race weekend for Nascar.

Although this was a `working event' with Lucasfilm and Pepsi Corp. which meant we had to deal with a lot of their requirements, demands, and restrictions plus have a visual inspection of the costumes by a Pepsi executive before they picked for any Jeff Gordon duties, we all enjoyed the different experience working an event unlike our normal 501st trooping events or experiences. Many thanks to them for the opportunity!

Pics will be up soon in our Galleries on 501stso.com