Great Racers Celebrate 1908 Great Race in Times Square

Great Racers participating the 2008 Great Race were in Manhattan last Tuesday, February 12, to mark the 100th Anniversary of the 1908 Great Race from New York to Paris. As part of the celebration, the Racer’s enjoyed a New York City Police escort through Times Square at the exact moment that the 1908 Great Race began a century ago. The streets down Broadway and 7th Avenue were lined with people taking pictures of the field of cars as they drove through The historic cross roads. Following Times Square event, the 2008 Great Race and the participants were presented to the National and local media at a Press Conference at Tavern on the Green. To read some of the coverage, please go to Great Race’s Home Page.

The occasion marked the official start of the 1908 Great Race a century ago when six teams from four countries raced out of Times Square on a 22,000-mile trek around the world to finish in Paris, France 169 days later.

Among the people on hand Tuesday was Jeff Mahl, Great Grandson of 1908 Great Race winner, George Schuster. Mahl, a noted historian on the 1908 Great Race, drove through Times Square in Rodney Rucker’s newly restored 1920 American LaFrance, customized to look like the 1907 Thomas Flyer.

According to Jeff Mahl, “It was a surreal experience to be in Times Square at that moment, having heard the stories from Great Gramps for so many years, it was one of the greatest moments of my life.”

Rodney Rucker entered the New York to Paris event just 2 weeks ago and has worked feverishly ever since to prepare his American La France.

Two teams form New York State also participated; Jim Taylor and his wife Leejune, from Gloversville, NY driving their 1967 Jaguar and Jonathan Auerbach from New York City, driving their 1960 Mercedes 300d. Both teams are participating in 2008 race from New York to Paris in the Schuster Class for classic cars,

Dr. Rich McKone and Jerry Price came to the event with McKone’s 1967 Aston Martin DB6, The British racing green DB6 is being retrofitted to run on 5 different alternative fuels in the Innovation Class.

Dennis Barfield, Jimmy Boggs and Jack Crabtree traveled the farthest, coming from Charleston, SC with their 1930 Ford Model A Ford. Ed and Janet Howle also did the same, coming up from Chapel Hill, NC with their 1967 Volkswagen Bug.

“It was a good event on Tuesday, said Janet Howle. “We met a lot of interesting people. The police escort was impressive too as we ran all the red lights on the way to, and from Times Square. Not many people get to do that!”

Great Race veteran and North American entrant Howard and Jan Sharp joined the event in their 1911 Velie.

A surprise attendee were John Jones, President of Packard, Inc., in an actual, 100 point, 1912 Thomas Flyer. Mr. Jones’ Flyer was the only one present at the February 12 celebration.

A Great Race, North American Entrant who attended was Marcelo de Luz, driving his solar car, the XOF1.

Great Race was also honored to have the event attended by the consulate generals and embassy officials from many of the nations that will host the race along the way.

Much like 1908, snow threatened all morning but held off until the event ended.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 16th, 2008 at 6:56 pm and is filed under Great Race North America, New York to Paris. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.