If any body tells you that the great race is just a lay back  ride in the countryside, their nuts. PeeWee and I both agree that this is one of the most difficult things we have ever done. Its one thing to drive your 57” Chevy 4000 miles across America, but, when your in and open car that you built yourself is another challenge all to is own.

 

As you may know we started out in Concord, N.C. on June 30^th, but, prior to that, PeeWee and I went to a Rooky school where they gave us some the basics about rallying. We paid attention and we thought we could be competitive right out of the box. Our first Stage was from Concord, N.C. to Spartanburg, S.C.

 

We took off with the cheers of the Concord crowd and made our way down the highway, paranoid about reading and executing every instruction correct. Well all was going well until yours truly blew a turn. We were doing so well and then it happened. We completed the stage, but, our score was crappy because of the turn. Thanks to a farmer that said ”Boys, all the other cars are going down that road and you isn’t with them. At first thought, we thought it was a trap like at the Baja 1000, but, we soon became aware of our screw-up. I say we, because PeeWee was driving and we missed the turn together.

 

The second day we were going the through our rally instructions through the Smoking Mountains. What a gorgeous place. We were at about 5500 feet altitude and just cruising along when I looked at the temp gauge and saw it pegged at 300 degrees. We shut he engine off and parked to the side of the road. There it was, our water pump pulley not attached to the water pump. We blew the center right out of it.

 

 Shortly, we were scrapped up by the Great Race support trucks. PeeWee and I spent most of the rest of that day riding in Mike Books 18 wheeler called Blue Highways. What a nice ride and nice guy. We were bringing up the convoy into Chattanooga, TN.

 

PeeWee and I were worried about where in the world we could find a pulley in Chattanooga? Well as fortune would tell, we were in Corky Cokers town and he runs the same Buick engine as we do. With the extreme generosity of Corky, his staff of mechanics, and support personnel, we were able to put a new pulley on the car. We were up until 1:00AM Monday morning in Chattanooga getting the car ready for the next day.

 

We received our stage 3 race instructions at 7:00AM and were off to Nashville. We had a great run to Nashville. The car performed great and we were spot on with our timing. Just not good enough to get  money or to move us up out of the hole from our DNF on Sunday.

 

Getting up the ladder will depend on how many good times we can get and if we can ever get an Ace ( a perfect time to the second). Just try going down your street and ending up at exactly the second you predicted. Then think about going over 200 miles in 4 legs and coming up with a perfect score. Not off 1 second. It ain’t easy. Driving an unproven car is ever more difficult.

 

From Nashville we were off to German Town, TN.  for stage 4. Again, the car worked well and we did our best.  PeeWee and I were doing much better and started to work well as a team. We keep feeling like we are doing well, however, some of the other Rookies and the Veterans are doing better, plus we are still in that hole.

 

On stage 7, magic happened! WE GOT OUR FIRST ACE, a perfect score!! Norman Oklahoma. PeeWee and I yelled so loud at the finish line that we could be herd in Texas. WoW!!!!!!!!

 

Stage 8 to Grapevine Texas was again a really good day for us. We hit a 1 second off on the first leg, 4 seconds off on the second leg and then we got hooked by a transit that was far enough away that we missed our perfect start time. We were off by one minute at the start and it compounded our error at the end.

 

Just to let you know that we will be trying our hardest to get more Aces and to get in the money and more importantly, “Get Us Out of the Hole from Sunday”

 

I’ll try to write again, but, please go to GREATRACE.COM to see the pictures every day. The photographer loves the BeerSter.

 

WE are off on the second half. Cool down California for us “Please”!

 

 

 

 

Well we did well today. Yesterday we blew a water pump pulley and was rescued by the scrape truck. Corky Coker had an extra pulley so, even though we DNF’d on stage II, we did very well on stage three. We stayed up all last night putting the pulley on and machining sets of bushings.

 

I will attach some of our own shots tomorrow, but, you can go to www.greatrace.com and go to the pictures of the great race in progress.

 

This is truly one of the hardest things in the world to accomplish. My hat is off to our very worthy competition.

 

Hopefully, we will do better every day and win something. Our goal right now is to finish.

 

Everyone in all of the stops that we make love the car.

 

Mike