The 2024 Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Coker Tire is in the books. We had a great evening in Gardiner, Maine, which culminated with the Awards Banquet. We enjoyed an incredible dinner (lobster of course!) and watched the highlight video that Bryan, Pam and Maggie put together over the course of the nine-day rally. Then, it was time for announcements and awards. Nick Ellis from the RPM Foundation gave out awards and scholarships for select X-Cup teams. Great Race Director, Jeff Stumb announced dozens of awards, some based on performance, others that are subjective and a few that are just for fun. The last two awards of the night are always special. John Schmidt, Great Race Chief of Scoring, won the Richard Fredette Perseverance Award and Peter Prescott won the Tom McRae Spirit of the Event Award for his influence and support for the past 10 years of Great Racing. Let’s take a look at 2024 Great Race award winners.

Official Great Race auctioneer, Brad Phillips actioned off Mahan-Kapla Khalsa’s Ford F-150 for $20,000, with all money going to the X-Cup fund.

Katie L. Doherty from the Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce.

Gardiner, Maine Mayor, Patricia H. Hart giving Peter Prescott a document proclaiming June 30th as “Great Race Day” in Gardiner.

Coker Group VP Commercial, Mark Mooberry addresses the crowd, thanking the 500-plus drivers, navigators, support crew and staff for a successful 2024 Great Race.

Pete Barger of Southern Distilling Company said a few words about his adventure in the Southern Star sponsored Pontiac Bonneville.

The following photos are Scott Henderson X-Cup Scholarship recipients, as well as special X-Cup awards, presented by Nick Ellis of the RPM Foundation and Mallory Henderson.

Our Best Friend Award: Dave and Dean from the Maine Boyz

Best Dressed: Brad Phillips and Dan Stahl

Doc Fuson Trucking Award: Tony Stafford and Rick Conrath, 1972 Chevrolet C20

Never Say Die Award: Keith Pope, Sandra Berry and Maurice Gagnon

Best of Show Race Car: Sam Burg and Adrian Stevens, 1912 Haynes

Best of Show Classic Car: Michael J. Fiori, 1954 Packard Caribbean Convertible

Tag & Marybeth Lewis Best of Show Award: David Brogdon and Harold Taylor, 1936 Bentley Tourer

Coker Tire ACE Award: Bob Marak and Jim Caudle

3rd Place X-Cup: Auburn, Indiana, Jack Pontius, Connor Miller and Leo Powell (not pictured), 4m27.89s

2nd Place X-Cup: Galax, Virginia, Tom Littrell, Nathaniel Donley and Meg Donley, 3m22.80s

1st Place X-Cup: Stones River AACA, Jeremy Byrd, Matt Norman, Annie Holland and Carson Byrd, 3m13.07s

5th Place Rookie: Paul and AJ Bloomfield, 6m38.00s

4th Place Rookie: Jamie Nonni and Kevin Gross, 5m05.00s

3rd Place Rookie: Brian Turner and Brandon Way, 4m35.00s

2nd Place Rookie: Bill and Sharon Frye, 4m33.00s

1st Place Rookie: Dave and Liz Wallace, 4m24.00s

5th Place Sportsman, Craig Amundson and Jeff Mischke, 2m53.00s

4th Place Sportsman: Anna Holder and Della Smith, 2m40.00s

3rd Place Sportsman: Sean and Brendan Gilligan, 2m37.00s

2nd Place Sportsman: Charles, Colin and Lauren Brockway, 2m26.21s

1st Place Sportsman (9th Place Overall): Christine and Peter LaMountain, 1m46.60s

5th Place Expert (10th Place Overall): Erin Liberty and Ron Rowland, 1m51.00s

4th Place Expert (8th Place Overall): Erin and Brad Kaplan, 1m43.00s

3rd Place Expert (7th Place Overall): Eric Frankenberger and Aaron Read, 1m38.00s

2nd Place Expert (6th Place Overall: Gary and Jean Ann Martin, 1m25.05s

1st Place Expert (5th Place Overall): Neil Myerscough and Shanna Chatraw, 1m22.82s

4th Place Grand Champion and 4th Place Overall: Jeff and Eric Fredette, 1m15.80s

3rd Place Grand Champion and 3rd Place Overall: Olivia and Genna Gentry, 1m12.09s

2nd Place Grand Champion and 2nd Place Overall: Jody Knowles and Beth Gentry, 1m07.23s

1st Place Grand Champion and Overall Winner: Howard and Doug Sharp, 1m00.06s

Richard Fredette Perseverance Award: John Schmidt, Great Race Chief of Scoring

Tom McRae Spirit of the Event Award: Peter Prescott

The 2024 Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Coker Tire culminated on Sunday, June 30th in front of thousands of spectators in Gardiner, Maine. The event, which began in Owensboro, Kentucky is a nine-day, 2,300-mile time, speed, distance rally that puts man (or woman) and machine to the ultimate endurance test. The Great Race is all about precision driving, and the team with the score that is closest to the Rally Master’s pre-determined time wins the event and takes home $50,000. This year, it was Howard and Doug Sharp, a father-and-son team from Fairport, New York. They campaign a 1916 Hudson, which is fashioned after a Pikes Peak Hill Climb racer. Despite its age, the car is very reliable and gives the Sharps a scoring advantage, due to the “age factor” multiplier. Howard and Doug are always a contender for the win, and they strung together nine days of awesome rallying, which resulted in a final score of 1 minute and 00.16 seconds. The Sharps took home top daily honors on Stage 4 and Stage 6, earning them additional hardware, as well as Coker Tire gift certificates to go toward a new set of those Excelsior radials. Congratulations to Howard and Doug, who are now five-time Great Race Grand Champions.

When we visited Gardiner, Maine back in 2018, we knew it was something special. Great Racer Peter Prescott is Gardiner’s resident car guy and he influenced that stop’s success then, but the town really pulled out all the stops this go ’round. Peter partnered with city officials, who really got behind our finish line celebration on Sunday, June 30th. It was a warm and muggy day, with threatening thunderstorms in the afternoon hours, but thousands upon thousands of folks came out to cheer on these Great Racers. There were a total of 10 Great Race teams from Maine, and of course, all other parts of the USA and even overseas. The crowd was thick on Water Street, and we loved every minute of it. We compiled some of our favorite moments from the finish line ceremony, so enjoy these smiling faces as racers could finally breathe a sigh of relief after nine days and 2,300 miles of rallying.

There was so much action on Day 9 of the 2024 Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Coker Tire that we had to split it up into multiple posts. Here, we’ll see action from a challenging Stage 9 course, filled with quick turns, and a classic John Classen maze that sent racers zooming all over the back roads in different directions. By noon, most of the rallying was over for the day, and racers grabbed lunch and stopped for a quick visit to a private car collection before rolling into the finish line. The challenging course was a piece of cake for the father-and-son Fredette team. Jeff drove the wheels off his 1933 Ford pickup truck, while Eric calculated the maneuvers and speed changes in a precise manner. Jeff and Eric Fredette won Stage 9 with a score of 4.89 seconds, a time that would position them in fourth place overall at the finish. Speaking of the finish, we’ll have a separate post with fun photos from the finish line in beautiful Gardiner, Maine. It was one for the record books!

The Championship Run began today with Stage 8 of the 2024 Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Coker Tire. The Championship Run is important, because it means no scoring legs can be thrown out. It also means that there are often more checkpoints than usual. Today, there were a total of eight checkpoints, and the route was a tough one all day long. We started at our hotels in Augusta, Maine and zig-zagged our way to a wonderful lunch stop at the Seal Cove Auto Museum. We have visited Seal Cove before (2018) and just had to come back again to view the incredible collection. After lunch, it was back on the course, which sent us into the Acadia National Park for a quick loop. The afternoon route retraced some our steps from the morning course, but ultimately led us to the Owls Head Transportation Museum. We also visited this museum in 2018 as a lunch stop, but we got to spend a little more time this year as an evening stop. The museum is packed with amazing artifacts, including airplanes, commercial trucks, beautiful cars and more. At the end of the day, the cool temperatures, brisk breeze and misty rain put a damper on the celebration, but we still saw a great crowd on hand. The Stage 8 daily winners laid down an incredible score of six seconds in a vehicle that doesn’t have an age factor, due to engine and suspension modifications. Congratulations to Eric Frankenberger and Aaron Read for an outstanding score, which moved them up to fifth place overall and first place in the Expert division by only nine hundredths of a second. Howard and Doug Sharp have the overall lead by a 2.43 second margin over Jody Knowles and Beth Gentry going into the final day of competition. It’s going to be a tight one!

Welcome to Maine! We’ve finally made our way into Maine after seven days of rallying through 12 other states. Today, we started off in Providence, Rhode Island and quickly made our way into Massachusetts and then New Hampshire. The air was crisp and cool, and the skies were a special kind of blue, making for a beautiful day of rallying. The course was another challenging one, with many quick turns, and lots of local traffic on the roads to provide an additional challenge. We crossed into Loudon, New Hampshire for lunch at the New England Racing Museum. Dick Berggren greeted us as we came in and it was quite a treat to see the collection of racing artifacts he and his staff have assembled at the museum. New Hampshire Governor, Chris Sununu also joined us for the lunch! We had a very quick restart after lunch and hit the course hard with many more quick turns as we crossed into Maine and eventually made our way to the evening stop in Freeport, Maine. Thousands of people filled the street as we parked the Great Race cars along all of the great shops, including the giant L.L. Bean facility. The scoring staff had a tough time with the final tally on Stage 7, but it was the team of Jody Knowles and Beth Gentry taking top honors with a score of 5.67 seconds. Tomorrow we rally to Seal Cove and Owls Head, visiting two amazing museums along the way. Stay tuned as we head into Championship Days, where every leg counts and things get tight!

Day 6 of the Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Coker Tire was an interesting day, to say the least. We started our day in Binghamton, New York and made an eastward trek on our morning route. We saw more hills and twists and turns early on, passing through small towns along the way. Racers were faced with many obstacles today, including mowing crews, tree trimming, construction and local traffic. This made for a challenging morning route, but we breathed a sigh of relief as we rolled into beautiful Montgomery, New York for our lunch stop. An awesome turnout of spectators came out to welcome the racers to town, as they grabbed a quick lunch and got back on the road. The timed portion of the afternoon route was much shorter than normal, as we had a long ride into Providence, Rhode Island for the evening stop. A special treat to the racers and support crew was a tour through Dick Shappy Classic Cars, which is less than a mile from our host hotel for the night. After all the cars made it through the gate, the scores were tallied and for the first time this year, we had a tie for the daily score. It was a tie between Howard and Doug Sharp’s 1916 Hudson and Brad Phillips and Dan Stahl in the Stahls 1916 Hudson speedster. The Great Race tiebreaker system determined Howard and Doug Sharp as Stage 6 winners. Tomorrow, we head into New Hampshire and Maine…let’s go!

Today, we crossed over the halfway point on the 2024 Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Coker Tire! Day 5 started where we left off in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and headed north to Lewisburg for lunch. The hilly terrain made for a challenging day on the course, and the hills continued into the afternoon, as we headed toward Binghamton, New York. We’ve visited Binghamton in the past (2011 and 2022) and we’re always blown away with the spectator turnout. This time, it was even more impressive as storms approached the area as soon as the racers began rolling through the finish line gate. The crowd stuck around until the rain picked up, but the racers kept rolling in throughout the evening. At the end of the day, it was Team 66 of Jody Knowles and Beth Gentry taking home top honors for the day with an incredible score of 4.86 seconds. With that score, it ties Jody and Beth with the Gentry Sisters with a cumulative score of 28.35 seconds after five days. Take a look at some of the highlights…tomorrow, we go to Montgomery, New York for lunch and Providence, Rhode Island for the evening stop!

Another day of Great Racing is in the books! We started the day in sunny and cool Maryland, and took a nice drive on U.S. 40 Scenic, eventually making our way back into West Virginia after crossing the Potomac River via the Oldtown Toll Bridge. This is one of the few remaining privately owned toll bridges in the United States, and it’s been in use since 1937. The wooden bridge sits low over the river, and offered a great opportunity for the racers to experience the historic bridge, while off the clock. After that, it was another run on the clock, and a transit into Purcellville, Virginia for lunch. We had a special venue for lunch, as Great Racer Ken Walsh welcomed us to his family farm for what we thought would be an intimate setting. As it turns out, Ken invited a few thousand friends to join us and it was packed from end to end. We enjoyed a wonderful meal and a quick trip through the Walsh car collection, which included dozens of 409-powered Chevrolets and some amazing drag cars. Then, we stopped at the Purcellville Shell Station for FREE GAS for all Great Racers, compliments of the Walsh Family. From there, it was a northward trek into Pennsylvania. We made a lap through the Gettysburg National Military Park, and eventually made it to our finish line at Gateway Gettysburg. With an amazing score of 3.96 seconds, Howard and Doug Sharp won Stage 4 in their 1916 Hudson. That puts them in the lead in the cumulative scoring, but the Top 5 is tight and packed with Great Race veterans.

We marking states off the list quickly on our first three days of rallying. Today, we left the host hotel and immediately crossed into West Virginia for a long day of rollying in the twists and turns. The morning route was a test of both driver and navigator, as the instruction booklets had page after page of precise instructions. In fact, on a stretch of State Route 23, there were more than five consecutive pages of speed change instructions. From there, it was a short blast on the highway to reach our lunch stop in Morgantown, West Virginia, where we were greeted by thousands of spectators. Car enthusiasts of all ages came out to enjoy the Great Race as it spent a few hours in town. We enjoyed a quick lunch and grabbed a Morgantown goodie bag on our way out the door. The afternoon route was full of scenic views, as we crested many hills along the way. Late in the afternoon, we saw a classic John Classen loop, where the racers would pass through the same set of turns multiple times. These can be confusing for the racers, but it’s all part of the challenge. Finally, it was time to drive to the evening stop in Frostburg, Maryland…once again, we were greeted by a huge crowd of local car enthusiasts. The setting in downtown Frostburg was absolutely beautiful, and we enjoyed some great comfort food after a long day on the route. Tomorrow, we mark two more states off the list on our way to Maine!