FROM STAFF REPORTS

Alabaster resident Todd Latimer, a retired member of the Army National Guard, was one of 12 military servicemen and women honored at NASCAR’s Ford Championship Weekend at Homestead Miami Speedway in Miami on Nov. 20.

Latimer won the trip through “Ford: Operation Drive One,” a driving program Ford Motor Company started in April as a way to honor men and women of the military and raise money for the National Military Family Association, which sponsors programs aimed at supporting spouses and children of deployed military personnel.

Latimer and his wife, Stacy, attended the weekend.

For seven months, Ford Motor Company organized a 10-base national tour designed to provide a fun-filled day of entertainment for military families including exciting driving challenges, interactive vehicle displays of Ford’s newest products and technologies and classic car shows, all while raising money for the National Military Family Association. Ford donated $80,000 to the National Military Family Association based on test drives taken at each of the tour stops.

“It would have been great to have won the car but it was just really nice to have won in the first place,” Latimer said.