Beth Manus's Luck Is Just the Key to a BMW Z4 in NAPA Filters EZ4U Professional Installer Sweepstakes
SPARTANBURG, S.C., Oct. 11, 2006 -- Sixteen brand new BMW Z4 roadsters, all in a row.
Sixteen shiny keys, drawn at random and distributed to the First Place winners in the NAPA Filters EZ4U Professional Installer Sweepstakes.
Then the call, "Start your engines."
And down the line there was silence, except for car number 15, where Beth Manus of Pecatonica, IL, heard that distinctive deep growl of a 215 horsepower engine coming to life.
This could mean just one thing: she was the Grand Prize winner and would be taking delivery of her very own silver Z4 with red leather interior.
"It was just wonderful," Mrs. Manus said. "Sixteen of us got a key chain with a number on it. The chains were drawn at random. We stood behind our cars. We all started together. And mine started."
Mrs. Manus said she was pleased, but not actually surprised. "Everybody back home said they had a really good feeling that I would win. I did, too, actually. But I didn't tell anybody until it was over. I didn't want to jinx it."
Mrs. Manus said she only entered the contest twice in her own name. "Some of the people entered 200 times or more," she said. The sweepstakes was open to owners and full-time employees of professional shops that install NAPA Filters.
Mrs. Manus is the bookkeeper at Manus Repair Shop, which her husband started 26 years ago. "We've been a NAPA AutoCare Center since it started. We've always sold NAPA oil filters."
Winning the BMW Z4 was the culmination of a race-oriented weekend that NAPA Filters awarded to 16 First Place winners in its EZ4U Professional Installer Sweepstakes that celebrated NAPA Filters fortieth anniversary.
Winners and guests spent a day at North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham, known in NASCAR circles as "The Rock." There, they were trained in stock car racing techniques in the Racing Experience Driving, then turned loose on the track to race one another at speeds up to 160 miles per hour.
The next two days found the winners and guests at the BMW Performance Driving School in Spartanburg, S.C., learning high speed driving techniques and practicing them on six different courses.
"I rode around the track" at The Rock, Mrs. Manus said. "Everybody else drove. But I did drive at BMW. There were six tracks and I did five of them, got an SUV up on two wheels and everything.
"But it was stressful for me. It was the most stressful/joyous weekend I've had since my wedding."
Back home in Pecatonica, workers at Manus Repair Shop are hoping Mrs. Manus's luck continues. "We're trying to get her to buy lottery tickets now," said a service writer.
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