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June 23, 2014New England has a lot of mountains, just like our home state of Tennessee. Rolling hills, big mountains and beautiful valleys made up a lot of today's route, and we loved it! Team Coker, Greg and Vernon Cunningham, had an outstanding day in the '32 Ford roadster pickup, placing second overall in the day's scoring. Today's lunch stop was held at Bennington Station in historic Bennington, Vermont (the home of our buddies at Hemmings Motor News). A great crowd greeted us at the gate, and watched as we blazed a trail to get onto our afternoon route. Finally, we reached the final destination at Shadows on the Hudson in Poughkeepsie, New York. We're ready for tomorrow's rally and we'll be sure to keep you updated with photos.
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March 13, 2012If you follow our blog, then you know that we're passionate about vintage automobiles. We're even more passionate about getting out and DRIVING these pieces of automotive history! Aside from casual driving to local car shows, what's the best way to get out and enjoy your old car??? Well, we might have a biased opinion, but the answer is the Great Race! [caption id="attachment_2366" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Check out the map for this year's Great Race!"][/caption]
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October 04, 2011More commentary from Director of Great Race, Jeff Stumb: Day 7--Fairport and Buffalo, N.Y. After spending four plus glorious days in Canada, it is back to some more familiar territory in New York state. While in Canada, we had to get used to buying gas by the liter and eating at Tim Hortons (sort of the Wendys of Canada). I learned what a Looney is (the nickname for the Canadian one dollar piece), and a Tooney (the Canadian two dollar piece). Since the Great Race has never been to the Upper Penisula of Michigan nor the first several days in Canada, the route will be all new roads for Great Racers. And only a few, like Curtis Graf and Dave Reeder, would have participated back in 1995 when the Great Race started in Ottawa to recognize any of the roads outside Canadas Capital City. Of the 19 cities hosting the 2012 Great race, the event is returning to only four cities for a second time (Franklin, Pa.; Mansfield, Ohio; Findlay,
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October 03, 2011Still on the road and documenting his steps, Jeff Stumb gives us another overview of his day's travels. Check it out: DAY 6 -- Kingston, Ontario, and Watertown, N.Y. We enjoyed our time in Canada, but we were looking forward to getting back in the United States. So we were not prepared for what lay ahead in Kingston. Canada is beautiful, but Kingston was an unexpected pleasure. It was like a mini Seattle or Vancouver the way is sits on Lake Ontario. It is a city of almost 150,000 people, and the downtown actually overlooks the lake, including Confederation Park and City Hall which is where the lunch stop will be on June 27, 2012. It is also the exact halfway point of the race. When we left Kingston we traveled back into the United States across Thousand Island Bridge. It wasn't long before we arrived in Watertown, New York and met with volunteers for the event. The stop in Watertown has been moved to the Fairgrounds to handle the enormous crowd local organizers
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June 16, 2011We're winding down from another big day of the Great Race in Binghamton, New York. We snaked through the back roads of Pennsylvania for the majority of the day, and crossed into New York in the afternoon. Our route started in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and as soon as the clocks started for the racers, they had to negotiate a slow speed covered, one lane bridge, which was perfect for some cool pictures and video. It was a tricky route with lots of tough turns and maneuvers along the way. We stopped by Hazelton, PA for lunch, and were greeted by a huge crowd. We were also treated to a wonderful lunch, consisting of fried chicken and all sorts of other goodies. We even found a new favorite side dish....fried green beans! Back on the road, we saw thousands of acres of farmland, with rolling hills and more cool bridges. You really don't get a grasp of how amazingly beautiful this country is until you view these back roads! Today the roads led to Binghamton, New York were LOTS and LOTS of folks turned out to see the Great Race come through town. We had yet another awesome dinner, so it's time to loosen the belt a little. We have a super tight race for the lead right now, so take a look at www.greatrace.com for all of the up to date scores, as well as photos from today's route! Here are a few of our favorite photos from the day!
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May 24, 2011Great events dont happen by accident and they certainly dont happen in the blink of an eye. It takes a lot of work to develop, organize and run an intricate event such as The Great Race, and it took a lot of work behind the scenes to get it off the ground. Tom McRae and Norman Miller did just that in 1983. The two individuals were partners in the deal, and bought out an ailing race promoter who planned to race pre-World War II automobiles across the United States for a massive purse. There were plenty of folks who doubted the feasibility of an event of this magnitude, but with help from a crew of like-minded car nuts, McRae and Miller made it work. From the inaugural event in 83 to the return of The Great Race in 2011, there have been lots of memorable moments, and with the events new ownership and new direction, there will be plenty more in the years to come.