Great Race Experience by Brandon Melendrez & Trey Pedersen
My Great Race experience started a few years back as our shop, Mustang Country International, does the maintenance for a few other cars in the race, (Kaplan’s 1966 Mustang and Holder’s 1964.5 Mustang.) I have always liked the concept of this race as I have never truly been a fan of car shows. As our involvement grew year after year I became more enamored with the race and what it is about. The concept of strangers coming together, forming teams, and driving a classic car across the country with little more than paper directions trying to match a time that is essentially unknown to them for some strange reason appeals to me.
The last couple of Great Races I attended the final few days and got a snippet of what it was actually like in person instead of relying on hearing stories from our customers. This past race, 2026, came around and we actually had the opportunity to build our own student team and car. It was a rough and very quick 5 months of building the car filled with numerous unknown surprises and challenges. We started from scratch with a car we were originally planning on putting together to sell. The selling idea quickly got tossed out the window and we started hastily putting it together knowing our looming deadline. One of the big surprises that we stumbled into while pulling the carpet out was how soft the floor was in its current state. This was something out of left field for us as we had no plans on replacing a floor at all. Nor at the time did we have anyone who had the ability to replace the floor for us. Another one of our friends/customer stepped up and decided to volunteer his time and abilities and cut out the floor for us and welded in the new one. One of our students, Matteo, actually got a crash course on how to weld by actually helping weld the floor in.
With the floor replaced, we pushed forward and started assembling the car. We got lucky with our sponsors who assisted us with the parts they decided to help with. Tremec and Modern Driveline sponsored us with the T5 transmission and related transmission components. Champion Cooling sponsored us with the radiator. Quick Performance sponsored us with the center section of our rear end. Bangin’ Headlights sponsored us with the headlights. Lastly Distinctive Industries sponsored us with a headliner and sunvisors.
The logistics of acquiring parts, building the car, figuring out hotel accommodations, car shipping, amongst an endless amount of other problems that found their way to pop up brought on new levels of stress. In addition to all this we still had to run our day to day restoration shop and store to keep our business afloat. I am beyond grateful and thankful that I got to experience this opportunity, especially this year being Route 66. Hopefully, next year, we’ll be able to participate again in the race and it’ll be less stressful with our car already race proven.
--Brandon Melendrez
While competing in The Great Race, the biggest lesson I learned was to “run my own race”. This was a concept they taught us in rally school, but I didn’t fully understand until halfway through the chaos. It’s so easy to get distracted and fall into the trap of watching other racers. My best days on the road were when all my thoughts stayed in the car and I trusted my gut. I took this idea with me after crossing the finish line and it opened my eyes. I don’t need to be so worried about how I compare to my peers or being on the right track to success. Everyone has their own route, if I follow my own, I know that I can find success in what I do.
--Trey Pedersen
