Event Coverage Great American Race...Unbelievable..Pics Inside!!

Well that changes things a bit. I guess Big Olds, Me and Megan will need approx $15,000 then, $10,000 to enter and $5,000 for "extras" .....I can get the 14 days off no problem.

 

Wow, there is some far out stuff there, fun fun fun.

 

Make that $125,000.00 entry for a sponser car and $109,000.00 for a private entry plus $29,000.00 per additional crew member!
http://www.greatrace.com/greatrace/pdfs/GreatRace2008EntryFormv4.pdf
I'll just watch them drive by. They will be here in Lubbock today. I'll post a few pics later.

 

I went to the night stop in Norman, OK on the 5th of July. I thought for a while that things would be a washout but things cleared up just on time.

Had a great time with the family and all the drivers that we met were very nice when my kids asked questions. Some of the cars shown in earlier shots were not there as I had hoped but that was O.K.

BR

 

Here are a few more shots.

 

I had a funny discussion with a friend of mine who's been racing in the Great Race since its inception. He has piloted numerous cars (winning the race at least 5 times.) When I first met him, he was running a sweet Hudson Indy car.

Anyway, a while back, he switched and was running a brand new, Roush-built car. I was in his shop going over the "new" ride, and after a while I looked at him and said, "You know, this sure looks like a hot rod to me." He said, "What the hell did you say!?" (This guy was a 'restorer' and thought hotrodders were butchers.) I said, "This thing is a hot rod! Its got a super hot-flathead v-8, it's got a boxed frame, split 'bones, suicide axle... the only old part on this car is the guy driving it!" He just shook his head and grumbled. His mechanic/crew chief and I got a good laugh out of it though.

Anyway, I said *was* a restorer because more recently, he has seen the light. He was wandering through a car show, and as he was breezing past a section of hot rods something made him stop and look at one. He picked up the photo album of the car's build and started thumbing through it. He was blown away by the quality of build and the heart and soul that that it had been given by the owner's blood and sweat. He was also amazed at what the guy had done with a rusty crumpled pile of parts that monetarily wouldn't have been worth restoring in his world.

Anyway, he now has a deep appreciation for true hot-rods and thier builders. He would still get POed if you hacked up a 'nice' car, but he's all for scratch-built cars these days (and now owns several, including that one that caught his eye.) Who knows, maybe my teasing him opened his eyes a bit... :-D

The race has changed management several times over the past decade, and each time is does, the new guys try to change it up to make a bit more money (like "relaxing" the rules and qualifications as someone already mentioned.) There was talk the last time I spoke with some friends that worked for the race of clamping back down on the entry rules and raising the price (it was 12k then!) of entry, it looks like they have :-/

Good luck to em, I hope it works out. I'd hate to see the race go away!

 

I was going through the camera makin room and I was going to post these pics in the “cool pics thread” but after a search they should be posted here without starting a new thread, and it kind of brings it full circle since Bloodyknuckles took pics of the start line

These are from the finish line of the Great Race from 2007, which finished on 7-14-07 in wonderful Anaheim Ca. and started 2 weeks earlier in (<ST1<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com</st1:City>Concord??) <st1:State w:st="on"><ST1North Carolina</ST1</st1:State>. I was originally turned on to this race in 1996 or 1997 when it finished in Eureka Ca. and have tried to keep tabs on it ever since, my dream has always been to race in it&#8230;&#8230;.but the money tree hasn&#8217;t sprouted yet. Im getting lucky once again and will get to see the finish line again, the 2008 race will finish in <ST1<st1:City w:st="on">los angeles </st1:City></ST1Ca.

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So a little late, but im sure you&#8217;ll enjoy

these cars where just part of the car show held at the finish line

 

cars part of the car show

 

The racers

 

The last 2 pics are of Frank Curries ride (red wire wheels) with grandson, it was the oldest in the group, i think it was a "selder" or "felder".....

 

The green roadster came in second, Corry Coker in the black boat tail, the porsche was part of the coker team, and frank Currie crossing and parking

 

the winner in the blue boattail rod....not sure what it was, but you got to check out the navigators map/intruments........thats just damn cool...

 

Thanks for bringing this back up and posting pics. That was an incredible time. Great cars!


BloodyKnuckles