Ken and I are in our sixth year of rallying his 1968 Camaro in the Great Race. We competed in two rallies this year. The Great Race hosted a three day Spring Rally in Springfield, Missouri leading up to the 2026 Great Race from Illinois to California on Route 66. 2026 is the 100th anniversary of Route 66, and the Great Race was one of several centennial events being held to commemorate the route.
We arrived in Springfield, Missouri at the end of April with the best version of the car and ourselves that we have brought to a rally to date. Lots of off season preparations had the car performing better than ever. Driver and navigator had their respective duties dialed and we were cautiously optimistic.
The first day of the Spring Rally had us working hard through a 32 page packet of instructions. We had 8 checkpoints on the first day and had a 30 second score for the day. We had managed one perfect ace out of the eight legs. One brain blooper on my part cost us four of those seconds. We were in 12th position out of 75 cars after the first day. It was an encouraging start to the season.
The second day of the Spring Rally had a whopping 35 page instruction booklet. There were 9 checkpoints and the day proved to be very challenging. I made a mistake fairly early on and had Ken exit a corner at too high of a speed. We realized the mistake when we were catching up to the car ahead of us. Normally, the cars are at one minute intervals on the road. We were closing fast on the car ahead and had no choice but to hack off of them backwards to our minute. Later in the day, we missed a sign and a turn that would have us hacking again. We got caught by a checkpoint before we were back in position and got a 2:00 late maximum penalty. The checkpoint was positioned somewhere in the middle of a 6m12s timed run and I wasn’t sure where we were supposed to make the speed transition. We were in real danger of blowing another leg. We took a guess based on the position of the cars ahead and behind at the next sign and managed a 1 second leg on the final leg of the day. We got lucky! We were afforded two dropped legs over the three day event and we would need them both for this day. Our raw score was a terrible 2:39 for the day. After dropping the two worst legs, it was reduced to 16 seconds. We moved up to 5th cumulatively.
There would be no drops on the third and final day. We had to get through the course clean and keep mistakes to an absolute minimum. Ken and I scored an excellent 10 second day over 5 checkpoints. We tied for the top raw time of the day. Our performance on the day bumped us up to 3rd overall! Our total error over the three days an 22 stages was 56 seconds. We were 2.5 seconds out of 2nd place - it would have been nice to have made one less blooper along the way.
Ken and I left Missouri encouraged and excited for the main event in June. The car was in great shape with only a few little things on the todo list. Car, driver, and navigator were ready.
Ken, Chris, and I towed the car from home to Springfield, Illinois. We spent the first half of Thursday in Springfield doing registration, technical inspection, and calibrating our speedometer. That afternoon, we drove up to Lincoln to see some of the curious sights Route 66 has to offer. Chris played tour guide.
Friday, June 19th was a practice rally around Springfield, Illinois called the Trophy Run. It is the last chance to practice before the start of the Great Race. The scores from this day don’t really matter unless a tie break is needed at the end of the week. Ken and I had a great day in the car. We logged a 6 second day with two perfect legs. We were 7th overall and 1st in the Sportsman class. Our friends from New Braunfels, Dan and Pat, won the Trophy Run. Central Texas was well represented!
The Great Race began on Saturday, June 20th. The first day of rallying was only a couple hours from Springfield to Collinsville, Illinois. We managed a 14 second day with one ace. We were 25th on the day. We would be higher in the cumulative results after dropping a nine second leg.
Stage 2 had us rallying from Collinsville to Joplin, Illinois. We had an another good day with a 13 second result. We picked up another ace. The roads were rough - occasionally gravel with terrible potholes and bumpy crossings. The roughness took a toll on the car. One of the spark plug wires came out of the retaining clip and burnt. We were running on 7 cylinders which caused some bad vibrations in the power train. We repaired the burnt wire in Joplin and it appeared all was well.
Stage 3 was from Joplin to Oklahoma City. The day started off cold and wet and ended hot and dry! We had a ridiculously short speedometer calibration run in the morning and I made a bad decision on speedometer adjustment. We had a 35 second day as a result. Had I left the speedometer alone, we would have had a 12 or thereabouts. Worse than that, the rough running motor had taken a toll on the clutch. It became increasingly difficult to get the car into first and reverse. At the finish, the gears ground as we backed the car into parc ferme. Ken adjusted the clutch as much as possible that evening in the hotel parking lot to no avail. We consulted some mechanic friends and determined the throw out bearing or pressure plate was likely damaged. We took the painful decision to retire the car and head home.
My wife, Erin, had just flown to Oklahoma to join her mom as our support crew and cheering section. Almost as soon as she arrived, we were headed home. A DNF is frustrating, but I am still encouraged by our performance and grateful for the opportunity. There’s no finer group of folks than the traveling circus known as the Great Race.
