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coker-tire-challenge-2007-friday-start-1022_thumb.jpgGreat Race veterans Graf and Holmquist win the 2nd Annual Coker Tire Challenge

Great Race veterans Curtis Graf and Ty Holmquist won the 2nd annual Coker Tire Challenge with a score of 22.68 seconds for the 3-day event. In 2nd place, a little over a second behind, was Richard Fredette and Bill Loubiere. Barry and Irene Jason finished in 3rd, just under 4 seconds behind the winners.

The Coker Tire Challenge, presented by Great Race was hosted by Corky Coker in Chattanooga, Tennessee, home to Coker Tire International headquarters. This 3-day Great Race style rally for classic cars competed on the scenic back roads through southeastern Tennessee, northern Georgia and Alabama.

Forty teams entered including Jeff and Karen Stumb from nearby Huntsville, Alabama, driving the oldest car, a 1916 Hudson Pikes Peak Hillclimber. Also on hand was the beautiful blue 1934 Dodge Panel Van, owned by Hemmings Motor News. As with most Great Race regional races, the rules were relaxed a little, allowing teams to bring modern cars to the event. This year Cortie Wetherall and Joe Litchko, rookies from Devon, Pennsylvania brought a very rare 2000 BMW Z-8.

Here are the results for the 2007 Coker Tire Challenge.

“Coker Tire is pleased to host our vintage rally friends who not only have great collector cars but get them out and drive them,” said Corky Coker, president of Coker Tire. “Besides … you can’t get the smiles unless you do the miles!”

Much like national Great Race events, the Coker Tire Challenge features classic cars manufactured in 1969 or earlier in an open-road, rally race designed by John Classen, Great Race’s world-class course designer.

“We are thrilled to create a fun fall event for classic car enthusiasts,” said Bill Ewing, CEO for Rally Partners, Inc., the event organizers. “Last year’s Coker Tire Challenge was a huge success and a terrific starting point for creating an annual Fall regional rally that everyone can mark on their calendar as a ‘must attend’ event.”

The Coker Tire Challenge is based on the Great Race competition format, a street-legal rally-race on public highways. Precision driving is required from the driver and navigator who follow a specific set of course instructions that indicate every turn, speed change, stop and start that the race teams make throughout the three-day event.

ABOUT COKER TIRE: Coker Tire Company, Inc. of Chattanooga, Tennessee is the world’s largest supplier of collector vehicle tires, with distributors in more than 30 countries. The company offers vintage bias-ply and nostalgia-style radial tires for collector vehicles from the late 1890s through the mid 1970s, including products for hot rods, sprint and dirt track racecars and motorcycles.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 24th, 2007 at 10:51 am and is filed under Sanctioned Races. 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.

tomas-flyer-lr_thumb.jpgNew York to Paris Great Race dates announced

New York to Paris event is rescheduled for April 2009 as part of an exciting menu of automotive events

Great Race Sports has announced that the milestone event from New York to Paris has been rescheduled for April 25, 2009 after being postponed from its original starting date this May. The commemorative re-run of the 1908 New York-to-Paris “Great Race” is widely considered to be one of the most remarkable automotive adventures of the 20th century, an automobile race from New York to Paris before the advent of today’s modern highways and gas stations.

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 11:59 am and is filed under Sanctioned Races, Great Race Events, Great Race North America, Great Race Europe, Great Race China, 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.