Great Race 2023 - Day 2 - Tifton, GA to Birmingham, AL

Jun 25

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Stage 2 of the 2023 Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Hagerty picked up where we left off in Tifton, Georgia. We had a later start than usual, mostly because of the change to the Central Time Zone, as we cross into Alabama so that made for leisurely morning, before hitting the road for a lengthy speedometer calibration run. Racers took the to the course, which saw many more twists, turns and hills than we saw on yesterday's route. The rural setting led us through neat old towns like Plains, Georgia, and we hopped on the highway to cross the state line into Alabama. We stopped in Auburn, Alabama for our hosted lunch stop, and it was incredible. Great Race Director, Jeff Stumb is an Auburn University graduate, and a huge fan of the Auburn Tigers, so it was fitting that we stopped at Toomer's Corner at the intersection of College Street and Magnolia Avenue. A great turnout of folks joined us to welcome the racers into town. From there, we jumped back on the route for a long afternoon run through the back roads of Alabama, leading to our evening stop in Birmingham, Alabama. With storm clouds on the horizon, the daily winners were announced and it was Chad and Jennie Caldwell in their 1931 Auburn, putting together an awesome score of 4.83 seconds. The top 8 finishers of Stage 2 had single-digit scores, making for a tight race so far. Tomorrow, we continue heading in a Northwest trajectory, but we can expect more hot temperatures and high humidity as we make our way into Memphis.