Empire is a small village of about 400 people, located on the Lake Michigan side of the Leelanau Peninsula in northwest lower Michigan, a short drive (26 miles to the west) from Traverse City. Empire is home to the Headquarters for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Voted ‘Most Beautiful Place in America’ by Good Morning America, I can understand why it was chosen for today’s warm-up rally. Both the drive to and from was awesome. What happened in the middle was neat. Our lunch stop was preceeded by all competitors getting see Lake Michigan prior to stopping along a shady tree-lined street. With sound system up and running, I was able to introduce to an enthusiastic crowd, the teams as they arrived. A hosted lunch was enjoyed by all! The competition was held on a return route… a real challenge for rookies and old timers alike.
Meanwhile, back at Traverse City, at the Holiday Inn thanks to RTM Productions for sponsoring our a “social hour”. No one will need dinner tonight!
The final thing on today’s agenda was the Mandatory General Meeting, which started on time and ended early! Congratulations to all participants in today’s Hagerty Trophy Run. Overall winners were Dave Reeder and Sawyer Stone with a time of .81 seconds! How competitive is that? All of the results will be posted to www.greatrace.com
All of the preparation has been completed. It’s time to focus on the start tomorrow.
…time for an early night!