Once again, the Kieley/Roberts family fielded two first generation Chevy Camaros in the Great Race. This year’s route traveled South East from St Paul, Minnesota to Lake Murray, South Carolina. This is the fifth race that Erin’s dad Ken and I have competed in. This is the third for my wife, Erin and her brother, Tom.

Fuel line repair after the Trophy Run. Larry was one of Tom and Erin’s guardian angels all week long.

The team faced adversity like never before from beginning to end. We rolled out of Central Texas on Tuesday, June 17th. The plan was to tow both cars on rented U-Haul trailers. We’d tow one with Ken’s truck and another with Tom’s Escalade. The Cadillac’s engine knocked at a gas station North of Dallas providing a warning of what was to come. We limped through a section of 75 with jersey walls and no shoulders before the engine completely self destructed just as we pulled off the first available ramp in Van Alstyne, TX. The crew swung into action, arranging a tow truck from the local Cadillac dealer and a U-Haul truck to complete our journey to MN. Within two hours, the switch was complete. A massive thunderstorm in Northern Oklahoma made the day even longer. Reduced visibility and strong winds forced us to slow down to a crawl and eventually stop. We made it to the hotel around 1am. The crew was rattled and exhausted. Thankfully, the following day’s journey the rest of the way to St Paul was uneventful. We were glad to arrive at the start hotel and reconnect with friends.

Thursday, we returned the U-haul equipment, registered the cars and passed technical inspection. We did a couple speedometer calibration runs and ran into our first mechanical problems with the cars. Ken and I got a flat tire and Tom and Erin punctured a fuel line. This was the first of many issues for Erin and Tom.

I was able to spend some time with my rookies Tim and Bruce helping them get their speedometer calibrated and teaching them the process. The mentorship program made all the difference for us and I am glad to be able to pay that forward.

Friday, June 20th was the Trophy Run - a practice rally that started and ended in St Paul. The run lasted about three hours. We struggled a bit and ended up slightly late on every leg. Our score for the day was 19 seconds off of perfect - 35th out of 124 cars. Erin and Tom had an 8 second day which was pretty exceptional. They were only 1 second off at four of the five checkpoints.

The race began on Saturday, June 21st at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. day one was a half day of rallying that ended in Rochester at the Mayo Civic Center. Erin and Tom rolled into the Civic Center with no brakes and a leaky fuel line. It turns out the left front wheel bearings had failed. A spectator pointed out to me that the wheel appeared loose when they came in.

Many people joined in the effort to fix the car including the facilities manager at the Civic Center, other teams and their support crews, spectators, a YouTube automotive star, and our own crew. The two real stars of the evening were Chris from the Civic Center and our own Arthur Browne. Arthur joined our team as a support crew member this year. He is an ASE Master mechanic, automotive educator, former shop owner, and contract investigator for GM. He is an encyclopedia of automotive information and a gifted mechanic. He also has an outstanding mustache. Chris provided Arthur with a Dremel tool and Arthur was able to use it to re-tap the worn spindle and repair the car. Chris even found a volleyball to help keep the kids entertained. Without them, Tom and Erin’s race would have been over.

Arhur Browne repairing a spindle with a dremel.

Sunday, June 22, we rallied from Rochester to Moline, Illinois with a lunch stop in Waterloo, Iowa. Tragedy again struck Erin and Tom in the ‘69 Camaro. At a fuel stop, a raised piece of metal punctured the oil pan. Attempts to repair it with JB Weld failed and the car ended up on the sweep trailer to Moline. A bystander made some calls and found a friend with a welder who was willing to make the repair on a Sunday evening. Tom and Erin scored a DNF for the day - dropping the two afternoon legs, but were able to continue the next day.

Stage 3 on Monday, June 23 took us from Moline, Illinois to Springfield, Illinois with a lunch stop in Pontiac. The ‘69 again failed to finish with electrical issues in the afternoon. We ripped out the ignition system and replaced it - including a cobbled together Frankenstein starter switch. It was a late night, but again the team pulled it off. Luckily, the team only missed two legs in the afternoon. They now had four legs they had to drop for the race. They are allowed five.

Stage 4 took us to Owensboro, Kentucky with a lunch stop in Effingham Illinois. We really love Owensboro. This was our fourth visit to the city with the Great Race and the Regional Rallies. It’s a beautiful city on the Ohio river. There are a number of good restaurants within walking distance of the finish line and hotels. This evening, we were relieved to not have to do major surgery on either car. We did work on them both, repairing a fuel leak on the ‘69 and replacing a fuel pump on the ‘68.

Stage 5 had a great lunch stop at Swope’s Car of Yesteryear in Elizabethtown, KY. The morning run mirrored a day from the Spring Rally that Ken and I went to in May. We appreciated having a relatively easy morning on the road. After lunch, we rallied to Frankfort, Kentucky and spent the night in Lexington. We worked on ‘69 brakes that evening.

Stage 6 took us through Ashland, Kentucky for lunch and onto Charleston, West Virgina for dinner. There was a huge downpour at the finish just as we were ready to leave Parc Ferme to go back to the hotels.

Stage 7 took us to New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia. The scenery was beautiful. Lunch was hosted in Lewisburg, West Virginia. This was the most scenic day I can remember on the Great Race. This was also the coolest temperature day on this year’s race. We positively cooked all week. This one day below 90 degrees was a welcome respite. The stage ended at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, Virginia. We skipped the hosted dinner and found a Mexican joint within walking distance. The prospect of eating outside at the museum held little appeal.

Stage 8 on Saturday, June 28 began what’s known as the Championship Run. No legs can be dropped on the final two stages. Erin and Tom were within grasp of a top tier finish in Sportsman, but they would have to keep their wits about them and not have any mechanical problems. Stage 8 is always the most difficult day of the week, featuring a maze and a larger than average packet of instructions. We lunched in Galax, Virginia and finished the day in Mooresville, NC. This afternoon was very similar to a route that we did on our first Great Race in 2021. The maze was epic. We passed rally cars going the other way multiple times. It really messes with your head encountering cars that are thirty minutes in front or behind you on the road as the course loops around. You are forced to focus on your own race and the current instruction and ignore what’s going on around you. Both teams emerged unscathed from Stage 8. Erin and Tom moved up into the lead in the Sportsman class.

All smiles from team 110 despite all their car issues.

The rally concluded in Moore Park in Irmo, South Carolina. Stage 9 was a relatively short and easy day. Erin and Tom had a great day and held onto the sportsman lead they had from the night before. They had won the class. Ken and I put together our best day of the event and scored a 10 for the day after struggling to score well all week.

Team 110 won their class and the whole family was awarded the Richard Fredette Perseverance Award. I am very proud of Tom and Erin for winning. I am proud of our work as a team keeping them in the hunt. There were a number of times they could have been done. A lot of people, myself included, were shocked that they finished the race. I’m not shocked by the fact that they won - they are an exceptional team. They were 12th overall out of 124 cars. Ken and I finished 27th overall, 8th in our class.

Tom and Erin with their Sportsman class trophy and the team’s Perseverance Award.

As always, I’m very grateful for the opportunity. There were 124 teams in the race this year. It’s not lost on me that I’m one of less than 250 people in the world that gets to spend a week on the road rallying old cars in the Great Race. The people involved are among the best I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. Thanks to Ken and Chris for all the hard work it takes all year long to pull this thing off. Thanks to Arthur for all his work prepping the cars and fixing them along the way. Thanks to my wife for reminding me to enjoy it and reminding us all that we are doing this for fun. Thanks to my mother-in-law, Chris, for taking care of the kiddos and making sure they have fun experiencing the race in their own way. Thanks to my parents for holding down the fort at home and taking care of Reba the doodle. Thanks to the folks we met along the way that helped get that blue Camaro across the finish line.