I’m starting to count the days… Great Race 2012! Just think, this year the route not only comes into Canada… the night stop at Kanata/Ottawa stops at the Hazledean Mall… a mere three minutes from MotorMouth’s home! No hotel for me that night! I can tell you that the excitement is growing in the Ottawa area… as it is across the entire route. What a great start, using FaceBook as a launch pad to announce each stop. That has generated great excitement! In blogs in the near future, I’ll discuss how MotorMouth does his preparation for the event. Right now I’m preparing mentally by being in Myrtle Beach for 10 days of golf! Stay tuned… the MotorMouth is getting psyched for the Michigan – Michigan challenge! Have you checked out the list of entrants? It is a mix of tremendous experience and new rookies including the return of the X-Cup contenders. As a retired school principal I get even more excited about the students and their coaches/mentors. Let’s get ready for the best ever!

Later today, I will lead the celebration of life/memorial service for one of the all time great Great Race volunteers… Garry Burke. From 1999 until 2007, Garry and Ruth were key staff, responsible for the headquarters trailer, setting up and taking down the night stop at every city. During Tom’s years, they became trusted friends, travelling each year from Ottawa to Granbury, to repair, load and generally get things done prior to hauling that trailer to the start city. Ruth was my right hand at every evening event, making sure that through Garry’s spotting that I knew every team as it approached the evening finish line.

Both had faced incredible health challenges over the past several months, Ruth with an increasingly stubborn vascular dementia, Garry with cancer. Garry lost his fight last Wednesday. He would so have loved to be at the Ottawa overnight in 2012.

Garry was a true volunteer hero in our community. While not a part of the rebirth of Great Race, many of our Great Race family members will reflect and remember what key members of the Great Race team the Burkes were.

“Through the Great Race, provisioner of most of Garry’s wardrobe over the past several years, I travelled extensively with Garry and Ruth. He was the true vagabond, someone who, like me loved the ‘circus’ life; and while others will speak of their sports and community and RV life experiences with Garry, I can tell you about travelling together ( 1999-2007), years when first Garry and then with Garry & Ruth. they were inseparable, travelled extensively with “MotorMouth” ; there was never a dull moment. From start to finish, be it Boston, MA to Sacramento, CA, Livonia, MI to Daytona, Florida, Washington, DC to Tacoma, WA, they were all truly amazing events! My personal favourite. 2006, from Philadelphia, PA to San Rafael, CA. that was the year that dear friends Mike & Nancy Ward and my wife Marion, travelling in their new motor home, came to see the start of that year’s event. understanding perhaps for the first time the love and commitment that Garry, Ruth and I shared with our Great Race family. Taking four or five weeks annually, start to finish, Garry and Ruth would travel from Kanata to Granbury, TX, home of the Great Race; they’d load trailers, clean and repair equipment from the previous year, then haul truck and trailer to the start city. often from Texas to the east coast of the USA, drive the entire rally route, setting up the headquarters trailer for our “night” show each evening along the way, then haul everything from the finish city back to Granbury, TX before returning to Kanata! They were troupers! Garry loved being on the road! I seldom got to see them setting up or taking down. they were always at the next city, ready for the show to go on when I got there. Garry loved being in the background. making things happen!”

The quiet is deafening! After days of hoopla and excitement, of putting as much energy possible into every stop, both lunch and evening, today’s drive without urgency or pressure was enjoyable. I took the route almost back to Saratoga Springs, hopped onto the I-90 to Highway 12 into Watertown, NY. Just as I had unpacked the rental to turn it back in, my wife and travelling companion Dawn pulled in. I was quickly loaded and we were headed towards the Canadian border! It has been a very quiet day. I was so frustrated at having lost my voice prior to last evening’s banquet. What an awesome banquet it was! I can’t remember a better finale meal. Corky was an awesome emcee!  The awards, the excitement of learning that the Fredette family was being honoured with the “Spirit of the Event” Award… made for an excellent evening. Tonight…quietly at home reflecting upon the week that was! I can’t wait to learn about Great Race 2012 and to learn if I will be a part of the next chapter…

The Hemmings Motor News Great Race 2011 is complete… our final day being spent in the Green State, Vermont. The morning competition was intense with the added challenge of inclement weather, early morning fog followed by heavy rains. The good news is that we got a break in the weather just long enough to meet all the rally teams at the finish line; and what a finish line it was! From the base camp at Stratton Mountain to the finish line at Bennington, the intensity grew amongst both staff and competitors alike…who would it be? Amongst our honoured guests at the finish line was Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott, short track stock car racer turned politician, LG Phil honoured every team at the finish line with the waving of the checkered flag, as Corky and Wes presented the treasured. “To Finish is to Win” medallions to every team. While a complete list of finishing order and winners will appear on our main website, I was excited to welcome our newest Grand Champions… Howard and Douglas Sharp, in their 1911 Velie H1 Racetype. They are $20,000 richer this evening! Shortly after their arrival at the finish line, my voice went…laryngitus set in big time,…

It is rare that one can achieve two items from the “Bucket List” in one day. Today has been one of those days. I got an early foggy start to the day, pulling out of Binghamton, NY much earlier than the competitors to get to today’s lunch stop…Cooperstown, NY, the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. What an incredible village! I arrived early enough to see both the Field of Dreams Sports Complex, a baseball sports field made up of over 20 baseball fields that hosts some of the largest baseball tournaments in the world, for youth, and the Baseball Hall of Fame in the Village of Cooperstown. What an awesome setting into to which the rally competitors were to arrive. Huge crowds, lots of enthusiasm and the best hot dogs so far on the Great Race! From Cooperstown, I was back on the road heading towards Saratoga Springs, NY home of one of the finest automobile museums in the world… holding presently some $20,000,000 worth of vehicles! The special display currently is called,  Forza Italia… The Enduring Mystique of Italian Sports and Performance Cars.  I saw cars today that I will never see again. I was reminded that…