"The Great Race"

Good shots WB, but where's the 1911 Marmon Wasp? That was by far my favorite.

Here ya go.

Posie took an interest in the JPS coupe. Maybe some ideas?

Sorta liked this old Chrysler.
That thing got a HEMI?
Sure does! Topped off with Dual 4bbl. WEBERS!
Never saw a 4bbl Weber before...rare for sure.

Bill, Awesome shots. Here's a few I snapped at Chambersburg before I turned into a pumpkin.

Sorry I missed the Hershey leg. Bridget and I did do just under 200 miles as it was, though, and I did not go to the office.

Now, Hemi's are all well & good and that wasp reproduction is smokey good times, but for real racing prowess and dependability, my money's on . . .

"donor!"

Good job chasing them down guys. Looks like a good time. The faux 356's look great there in the front row too!

We had the best time, weather was perfect, cars were unique and the show locations were well organized....
My speedster project # 23 red performed flawlessly on the 150 round trip to Hershey, no leaks, rattles, groans or hic cups.
Pics to follow

DANG! Looks like it was a great day to be out and about. Cool pics.

I'd like to take credit for the primo parking spot Wild Bill, however when Jim and I drove in, some semi-officious, over zealous guy with a clip board and whistle directed us to the back forty. It was Ken "Posie" himself, that wanted to drive Maggies Coupe, and drove it with such elan and panache to the primo spot, that the "official" wilted under Ken's command presence. Jim followed close behind in his Speedster. Thanks "Posie".

And so the story goes.... Chuck, please extend our thanx to Posie too.



~WB

Just checked out the pics on their web site. Our Speedys made their album!(Resistance was futile) Looks like Alan and Chuck did too! 4th row down...3rd pic in.



http://www.greatrace.com/great-race-2011-day-4?nggpage=2

~WB

Cool!

Hey Gordon, you make it to Bennington?

~WB

Oh...My....GOD!

Bennington, Vermont is an absolutely beautiful town!! Tucked in the upper Berkshire mountains in the lower left corner of the state, not far from Albany and Saratoga Springs, NY and all of the artsy towns of the Massachusetts Berkshires. We found a Victorian B&B right down town in Bennington (the South Shire Inn) that was amazing, and a restaurant in the old town railroad depot that was a 5-star.

It was misting and threatening all the way out on Friday morning (takes us about 3 hours to get there) and started to rain just as the cars started to arrive around 3pm. Continued to rain through the first 5-10 cars (they each come to the finish line slowly, as the "real" finish was at Stratton Mountain several hours before) and then it cleared and was GORGEOUS!

We sat, for a while, on the front steps of a church about 100 feet down from the finish line and talked with one of the Support guys for car 17, a Model A "Speedster" from New Jersey. He had lots of stories of breakdowns and free parts and service provided along the way by people interested in helping the race cars when they needed it. He also mentioned that the absolute best dinner of the race was provided by the culinary school in Chambersburg, PA, Dr. Clock's home town!!!

When the cars started to roll in, we went down to the street and stood by where they stopped after going under the finish banner to get their race standings, so we got great shots of every car.

There were two young drivers from Alabama in a Model A Street Rod. The Navigator is 15 yrs old and the driver is 16 years old and they finished in the upper middle of the entire field and first in their (rookie) class - Can you imagine them writing "What I did on my Summer Vacation???"

That green-ish Chrysler that Bill shows up above has also run in the Panamericana Race down in Mexico/Central America.

Everyone arriving in an open-cockpit car looked (a.) drenched, (b.) very, very tired and (c.) really happy (probably happy just to have the race over with!!) They all drove through almost an entire two days of downpours through New York State and into Vermont. Even though they cleaned their cars at Stratton, just before the finish, they all looked like they had just been through 1000 miles of mud.

Car #17 found that they had a bad rear hub and brake drum the evening before the start. Couldn't find one anywhere amongst the other racers and hadn't brought a spare. Then someone came walking along from Honest Charlie's car parts in Tennessee. He said "I think I have those back at the shop for a car we're building for someone. If you come over tomorrow morning we'll take a look." They had precious little time in the morning before the 8am start, but when they arrived at the car at 7am, there on the ground was a box with a new hub and a used, but serviceable, drum. They put it on and finished the race on it with three high-temp, powder-coated drums and one old rusty one.

There must be thousands of stories like this from the "Great Race". While we were sitting on the church steps, this ancient, pot-bellied guy comes up to sit and he's wearing a "Great Race 2007" tee-shirt. Turns out he used to run a 1939 Mercury in the Great Race - for seven years!! Won his class two years in a row, back in the mid '90's. I asked why he's not running this year and he told us that he hasn't raced for four years - both he and the car were getting too old!!!

I'll try to get some pictures up later today. Even with a rainy "start to the finish", what a day it was!!

gn

BTW:

While driving around Bennington and getting lost, we came upon the official, "Hemmings Motor News" Automobilia store - in a working gas station, complete with Model A Car Hauler sitting on the side. Had a couple of teenagers working there, complaining to each other that "There's never anything to do in Bennington..."

Sounds like me, growing up in Grafton, Massachusetts....

I'm back here now for a while and STILL there's nuthin' to do.....

Well, folks, I ended up with close to 60 photos, got some titles on a few of them and you can wade through all of them here:

http://s593.photobucket.com/albums/tt14/speedstahguy/The%20Great%20Race/

Also, LOTS more photos on the Hemmings site here:

http://www.greatrace.com/great-race-2011-day-7

BTW: The overall winner was a 1911 Velie Racetype. That

Cool pics, Gordon! Thanks for sharing those.

The "Alfa Romeo" is actually an Arnolt-Bristol. Very cool car and very nice photos Gordon. Looks like there was a little rain on the Yankee end of the Great Race.

Well, I was there, twice -- Chambersberg and Hershey -- and saw these great cars rolling up. The older, open wheel monsters being the coolest, and truly in the spirit of the thing, from my point of view. Several folks were dressed well in period costumes too. The kids in the hot rod, and even a 911 or two were there, but they were not that exciting, I must say. More power to them for running the race, but the "show" for me is in the older cars. And the flat-head V-8s were in abundance, the one Gordon has a pic of here perhaps being the nicest. I have a few shots of my own to post up, if/when I get a chance to do it.

I spoke w/ the hemmings editor who was driving an old Ford "Speedster", and asked him how fast he had taken his car. He said that it would likely do well over 100, as had plenty of power, but was geared so low that 80 was about all there was. He further observed that the day prior there had been two legs of the rally where the required speed for a stretch of about 30 mins was 18.5 mph. Said that was brutal.

It was hard for me to figure what was the biggest thing for the drivers at large here: being keen on the competition (winning the rally), or being part of a really cool show. Some seemed quite serious about the competition, but on balance I think these folks (many husband and wife couples, I noted) were in it for the fun.

Seems to me that with a handful of sponsors, there is no reason why a replica Speedster could not join in the fun, if there was one (or more) that wanted to. I'd have to read the fine print on the registration forms . . . I'll bet some of our builders could be convinced to pony up some $$ to get the fees paid, don't you?? Put their stickers on the side, and off we go. Anybody here know how to do a time-and-speed rally??

Kelly, MY BRUTHA! - sounds like you had a great time. That would be uber cool to see that race. If that rally day-dream comes to fruition, I have driven/navigated on a 'few' navigational and time trial rallyes, so I'm throwing my hat in the ring for that gig.

Coker ran his replica Marmon Wasp so a replica could maybe get it... the current rules as written, though, suggest a pan-based car with drum brakes aft (at least) would have the best chance at getting in without an argument. Assuming the $4k was forthcoming.

.......Anybody here know how to do a time-and-speed rally??

YES, I do Kelly, a friend of mine was my Nav' for two years we did rally's monthly and kicked some serious butt...my trophies (inscribed pewter beer steins) are perched on a shelf in my shop.

I ran TSD rally's as well, back in the 60's and 70's, either in my '66 Mustang or in a dune buggy. Ran a Halda "Tripmaster" set of instruments back then, all analog, and expected to see some high-tech digital set-ups on these cars but they were all running analog as well, although I don't know what brand(s). Wouldn't be too hard to find out exactly what they are running these days.

gn

TIMEX and two stop watches that's all I ever needed...
Oh the 2nd stop watch is for when you realize the driver ( never the "Nav") screwed up and you then start the watch to have some idea as to how long you need to haul ass to make up the T & D.

1979 here we are doing 60 or so and my Nav Ross screws up and half kidding around, I reach over and clock him on the side of the head... out like a light :~)

A flyer I picked up in Chambersburg says the body and workings of the cars need to be built in 1969, or prior. Any Speedster replicas that old? Hmmm . . .

The fee is stated at $3500, and I suppose you could just pay it, but believe most of the $$ comes from corporate sponsors.

Also, the deal here is time and speed, as distance is not measured. They tell you how fast to drive and for how long. They catch you at between 4 and 7 check points along the way each day, and if you are early or late, you get dunned the seconds. Guy w/ fewest seconds late/early wins. Leader in the race in Hershey was at 13 sec. (!) and only three days left at that point. No distance measurements made or allowed. Of course they give you very specific directions for where to turn, etc. and you need to be able to interpret these on the fly. Not sure how sneaky these instructions are, as I only took a quick look at the paperwork they were carrying. Looked as if the instructions were all graphic and simple (turn left here, turn right here). Some rallymasters love to make these directions extraordinarily perverse, so as to try to get you to drive off course. Not sure if they do that here, but maybe. All tachs and odos in the cars are taped over. I suppose if they catch you w/ a GPS in your pocket, you'd be screwed.

three pics:

OK, and it is time again for me to wonder how to take a perfectly fine muti-meg .jpg and have it post up on the SOC w/out pixelation. The shots here are decent res, and look fine on my computer full screen, but look like crap when uploaded and seen here. Doing something wrong -- wonder what.

Kelly,
I've had trouble in the past posting photos with the .JPG in all caps, vice .jpg. maybe give that a shot???

Kelly - I've found that if I reduce my pic size to under 200 KB when I "add a file" to the SOC photo library, the picture loads much clearer. Give it a try.

Or, you could just give up on loading pictures on here and serve them from Photobucket or Flicka or some other picture server. THEN you get whatever you loaded in the first place.

Like this: