Looks like you guys are having a great time. Where can I find the address for the Ken Walsh Farm in Purcellville, VA? I want to try and make it there to see you guys at lunch.
Edit: Found the address. I’ll find you guys and support the team by buying a T-shirt!
Monday, June 24th. Today we went from Marietta, Ohio ro Frostburg, MD. Lunch was in Morgantown, WV. We employed some of the adjustments we were thinking about and it seems we overshot our target. Most of our scores were late and today, most were early. We made one wrong turn this morning. We realized the mistake as we were making the turn and quickly got back on course. After that we got stuck behind another Great Racer that was going a just a little slower than we thought we should be going. Eventually, we got around them.
Lunch was in Morgantown, WV. Morgantown is an interesting city, very condensed downtown where the streets are tight. I only got one quick pic. Luckily, I have some Go-Pro footage of driving in to the stop for lunch…which will get posted in hopefully a few weeks.
Here was a stop for gas in West Virginia.
Finally arriving in Frostburg, MD…which is another neat town, the street was packed with Great Race cars and other local classics.
Our arrival was later in the day so we had to park on a side street and got blocked in for a while.
Today we came in at #105. This puts our cumulative place to #97. Tomorrow is another day and being part of this event certainly makes it a GOOD day!
see ya soon!
Thanks, glad you could visit!
Tuesday June 25th, our 4th day in the Great Race rally. Two days ago and prior the majority of our completed legs were late finishes. We would calibrate our speedometer to the route sheet and it just seems a little off. Yesterday, we felt the calibration needed to read slower, and it did, too much. We were early. Looking at the book for the speedometer, the formula for adjusting to the route sheet is a bit complicated when trying to convert in relation to 3600 seconds, converting for a percent then back in to how many clicks to move the dials. We asked a more experienced team on how they handle calibration and they were gracious enough to give us a quite more simple formula using only 3 numbers. For my own future reference I will write it here. Using seconds, divide the Desired number, by the Actual number then multiply by the Current setting. or D/AxC. We found this just about split the difference between both the high and low settings from the previous days. Today went very well and we feel the speedometer is as close as it could get. I’m very excited to see the results of our speedometer calibration tomorrow. 99% chance we will need to make an adjustment…which is expected for every new day. It would be nice if it were only a couple clicks. Not a big number 35 or 72.
There were 4 checks before lunch. Other than a very pretty 1931 Buick positioned a couple minutes ahead of us that struggled going us the steep hills, we didn’t have any obstructions. The Buick was courteous enough to see that we needed to go a little faster and quickly pulled over so we could swap spots. This allowed us to continue in our correct position.
Lunch was in Purcellville, Virginia. What made lunch great today was 3 Cougar friends were there to cheer us on. Phillip, Ken and Chad. It was great you guys came out to visit…especially with a 2-1/2 hour drive. It was greatly appreciated to see you guys. Ugh!!! I didn’t get my camera out, hopefully there are some pics from the lunch today…Phillip?
When we arrived in Gettysburg, the route sent us through the Auto Tour. I’ve never seen the battle grounds of Gettysburg and was quite astounded with all the monuments. It is something I’d like to come back to in the future to spend a day at. We arrived to our finish location in Gettysburg.
This time it was a car show at a big parking lot at the Wyndam Hotel at Gateway Gettysburg.
The car show was nice because it was allowed to stay in place longer than the displays that are on a closed off Main Street in some of the other cities. And, and, and…more Cougar friends stopped by to visit. Steve, Jeff and Nancy. It was great to have you guys stop by. In all cases, I wish there were more time to hang out and chat. I know there were some pics taken…send them my way! I’d love to add them into this thread!
Oh…if I didn’t mention. Today has been our best day yet. We scored 55th out of 128 positions today. This brings our cumulative score to 87th. Tomorrow, we will continue to fine tune our adjustments.
It’s after midnight…I ought to get to bed. See ya tomorrow!
It was great seeing you guys in Purcellville Mark! What fun! You guys looked remarkably fresh for having spent so many miles and hours in an un-airconditioned, big block, '69 Eliminator. Here is the pic we got of the Cougar group at that stop (thanks Iris!). From left to right we have Ken, Dave, Phillip (me), Mark (you) and Chad.
I got a nice little video of you arriving and the announcers describing Team Eliminator. The location was gorgeous and the accompanying car show was a lot of fun. Good luck and can’t wait to keep up with the rest of the race.
Wow, great pic! Thanks Phillip! Glad you guys made it out.
Wednesday, June 26th. Gettysburg, PA to Binghampton, NY.
Yesterday was our best at 1 minute and 8 seconds for the whole day. Today, we did 57 seconds. Things went pretty well. We are mostly leaning towards being late, although we did have one early leg. There are many variables that come into play when trying to scrutinize seconds on these events. The scores have been posted, for the day our position is #51 for the day. We are within the better half of the field. Overall, for the entire event, we are currently at 81st. We just need to keep going the way we are going…onward and upward!!!
Lunch today was in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
After lunch the skies were getting dark. Then we saw a few rain drops on the windshield. Before too long it was a heavy downpour. Whether rain or shine the Great Race trudges on. Today’s finish line is in Binghamton, NY. Dinner was very good, with marinated chicken in a hoagie roll, macaroni and potato salads and a garden salad.
Here are some rainy pictures:
I’m hoping to get a little more sleep tonight for best performance tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes. See ya then!
Enjoy buddy, she looks like a sweetie!!
Speaking of Loudon, I miss those Wednesday “grudge nights.” The good old days
Thursday, June 27th. Binghamton, NY to Providence, RI. …and we made it.
Today has been a little tougher than previous. While the topography isn’t a problem, there was definitely more traffic and it seemed like more construction zones to deal with. Dave and I felt we were doing better than before, but our overall our score was 2 minutes and 4 seconds for the day. We placed 71st today. It was said during one of the rookie seminars that “this event is a great equalizer”. Equalizer in the sense of a team can have tractor trailers full of support parts and crew with all the training and confidence…and they get beat by two people in a cheap car that was driven to the event. It takes a lot of skill and a bit of luck.
Lunch today was in Montgomery, NY. Our friend Paul Damato drove up from New Jersey to meet us there.
It’s great to have friends show up. As mentioned, I wish I had more time to hang out, but we are always on the move.
There was some heavy traffic on I-84. which was used as part of a transit. A transit is a portion of the route where you are given extra time to leave one timed section to the next timed section. Transits will often happen where there are variables that would be out of control. Like areas known for a lot of traffic or a lot of traffic lights or construction areas. The transit can be used for refueling, bathroom break etc. We couldn’t make it though the transit on time today due to standstill traffic on I-84. We filed what is called a Time Delay request. This can be requested if something halts your forward movement like a train at a railroad crossing, a herd of cattle crossing the road, funeral procession or stand still traffic…etc. We did file a 16 minute Time Delay for the I-84 traffic and after review were granted the time.
Shortly after getting back on route, we passed more friends on the side of the road in Seymour, CT.
Tomorrow, we go to Loudon, NH for lunch then into Maine.
We have a low starting position tomorrow which means we will actually get to lunch around lunch time. It also means we have to start earlier than we have been. Time to get some sleep and I will see ya tomorrow!
Friday June 28th. Providence, RI to Freeport, ME. …and we made this one too. Everything is running good.
Wow, what a day. When one of the starts or stops is located within the state where either the driver or navigator lives in will put you in a lower starting position. This is with the expectation that friends or family will be visiting due to the location.
Today at the lunch in Louden, New Hampshire, we had a few more Cougar friends come out. Rich and Bethany, Les, and Dan.
Dave is doing an excellent job. I can say that because today was our best day so far…and by far. Our total score for the whole day was 13 seconds. This was 9th overall for the day. It is also the lowest score for any rookie team up to this point. And best yet, we got an Ace today. An Ace is when you zero a check point. Not one second fast or one second slow…exactly where you need to be, when you need to be there.
To finish the day, we arrived in Freeport, Maine.
It’s always late by the time I can get in and get things together for this thread. They say the last full day is the hardest. With that I should head to bed to be at my best tomorrow.
See ya then!!!
Looking great. Way to go Dave with all the navigation requirements. Keep up the excellent work. Best of luck to you guys on the final day!
Here’s a few pics from the Purcellville lunch stop.
Congratulations on the ACE you guys!
Congratulations and thanks for the inspiring story and pics.
Saturday, June 29th. Today we did pretty good, we couldn’t quite hit the target as good as yesterday. We achieved another ACE today. Our score for today is 1 minute 3 seconds. Most other days were 5 legs and one 6 leg day. Today was 8 legs. While each leg score was reasonably low, a bunch of low scores tend to add up. This event has been a great experience and we’ve met a lot of nice people. Tomorrow is our last day, and we will make the best of it.
Here is the plaque for winning rookie of the day on Thursday.
Lunch today was at the Seal Cove Auto Museum:
I can say I’ve never been away from my family and my shop for this long. The Great Race event is fun. It is also demanding to stay with the pace. While I am anxious to get home, this has felt like one long weekend. Tomorrow, we have the final leg of competition. Dinner and the awards banquet.
I will let ya know how it goes. See ya then!
Congrats on the award and collecting another ace. Show them proudly.
Sunday, June 30th. Agusta, ME to Gardiner, ME. Today was the final leg. This morning, we went through the speedometer calibration and ended up with a number that was quite different from yesterday’s setting. When looking at all the segments of the calibration, they all had the same percentage of error. We thought this might be a wildcard the route master threw in by causing an intentional error and that we would need to calibrate to that. Unfortunately, that notion was not correct. By changing the setting, we caused ourselves to show up pretty darned late at every check point today. Some people say you need to recalibrate every day, others say I haven’t changed it in 5 years. Oh well, live and learn. It’s not like that error took us out of the chance to win the $50,000 grand prize. That vanished as we left the first parking lot. Dave and I felt like we did good on the route today. No wrong turns, good calculations on transitions…but, the wrong speed all day.
There was no lunch today as it was a shorter course today. There was a stop at an auto museum, but they requested we don’t show pics on social media.
Shortly after that we went to the finish in downtown Gardiner, ME.
This has been quite the journey, learning curve and experience. I’ve met a lot of nice people. Not one of them made me feel like an outsider. The Cougar endured a lot of miles, probably around 4000 or so. Half of those miles contained a lot of quick turns with hard stop and go. The Cougar kept rolling through it all.
Another fun thing is Sam Mahdavi from the TV show Sam’s Garage was running a car in the Great Race. Dave and I had talked with him several times throughout the event. Sam is a super nice guy, very pleasant and fun to be around. He’s one of those people that makes the room into a positive atmosphere. Sam said “hey, I want to interview you guys”. Sam and his staff with Dave and I went out to the Eliminator and had some discussion about the car and Great Race on camera. Perhaps we will see it on a future episode of Sam’s Garage.
Again, this was quite the experience. Very glad I was able to participate in this event. I’m also glad to be heading home and getting back to my family and home. Dave and I didn’t kill each other on the trip, but there is still the trip home tomorrow.
Thanks for following along in this thread and to those who helped support with buying a T-shirt.
A Big Thanks to everyone that came out to visit.
See-ya soon,
Mark
Congratulations Mark and Dave! And thanks so much for taking us all along for the ride!!
Congratulations on earning two aces and finishing the race guys! Way to represent the Classic Cougar Community! I enjoyed meeting you guys along the route.
