Full Circle on Route 66: Winning the 2026 Great Race

*Trevor Stahl and Buddy Green presented the Grand Champion check from director, Brad Phillips.*

The Great Race has truly become a family affair for the Stahl family. My parents first got hooked in 2012, and since then, brothers, sisters, nephews, and more have followed to join the Stahls Motors & Music Experience Team. Along the way, we’ve made some incredible friendships, which is one of the things that makes the Great Race so special. It really is one big family.

It’s a family that will compete with you toe-to-toe all day and still be the first to lend you a jack when you get a flat tire, which we learned firsthand this year.

Before the start of the second-to-last day, the Championship Run, we pulled into a gas station and came back out to the sound nobody wants to hear: a hissing noise coming from the left rear tire. We had about 15 minutes until our start time. No problem, right?!

We immediately went into tire-changing mode and, for a few minutes, felt like a NASCAR pit crew. Since this was our first time rallying the car, we knew there was a jack buried somewhere in the trunk, but finding it was another story. Thankfully, our friends, the Fredettes, were there to lend us theirs. I think the trunk is still a mess from everything we pulled out and threw back in, but we got the tire changed, made it to the start sign, and kept racing.

That moment sums up the Great Race pretty well: competition, adversity, friendship, and plenty of great stories along the way.

This year was especially meaningful. We raced from Springfield, Illinois, to Pasadena, California, along historic Route 66 during its Centennial celebration and America’s 250th birthday. It was also a full-circle moment for me. My rookie year was 2015, when we traveled Route 66 and won the Rookie Division. To return to Route 66 11 years later and win the Great Race for the second time was pretty incredible. Huge shoutout to Buddy Green for staring at that speedometer and keeping the needle locked in for nine straight days.

Winning is difficult enough, but doing it in a car we had never rallied before made it even more special. Blue Jean treated us great the entire way and helped us bring home the Eagle!

The Great Race is truly an adventure of a lifetime, and I feel fortunate to experience it year after year. Since my first race in 2015, I’ve traveled more than 17,000 miles and visited 210 amazing cities through the Great Race. I only know this because of the great work Amber Gregg has done with the new GR site.