Rookie Testimonials

After witnessing the finish of the 2014 Great Race in The Villages, FL, Mike Weaver (now driver) picked up his phone and sent two text messages. One to myself, (daughter and team leader) and one to Charles Metcalf (long time friend and now navigator). It simply read "we are doing this next year." I laughed this off, but soon realized how serious Mike was when he soon started sending me pictures of potential race vehicles! Driven and navigated by a couple of semi-tired lifelong friends and backed by our family owned meat grinding manufacturing company in Northwest Iowa, our rookie team, Team Rome, was born.

The 2015 Great Race started as a fun event that we could participate in, as well as use our race vehicle in a marketing campaign for our business. I’m not going to lie; I thought this new hobby would be a great choice in keeping my Dad (Mike) busy in his semi-retirement! Jennifer Andrews, Great Race Coordinator, warned me of how addicting this would become, but never in a million years did I think it would happen to us. Team Rome started with our Driver and Navigator and by the time we left for the race in June, our team consisted of 20 people of all ages. Our 2015 rookie race turned into a 12 month great adventure for our entire team.

What’s the hardest part for the team members that are not in the race vehicle? Waiting. Waiting to see our vehicle make it to the finish line each day. Hoping they not only make it safe, but in good time. We worried about the heat, breakdowns, running out of gas, wrong turns, flat tires, and missed checkpoints all the while knowing there isn’t a darn thing you can do except sit there and wait.

One of the things we really didn’t expect is how much there was to do for all the support crew members along the way. By this I am talking about the places to stop at and see each day, as we traveled to the next city. Being able to learn about Route 66 and the history, as well as sight-see along the way, was a welcome surprise and a welcome break.

As rookies, we never expected to meet such amazing people along the way. Fellow drivers, navigators, families, crew members, townspeople, etc. Everyone was so welcoming, kind and helpful. Our favorite part was being at the car shows each night after the finish and listening to the stories being told, the good, the bad, and the ugly, all while seeing the enjoyment on everyone’s faces. When they say the Great Race community is like a big family, it really is.

I was asked to participate in the Great Race in October 2014, when I went to Detroit to celebrate my 30th birthday with my friend, Trevor Stahl. Trevor’s family have been competing and sponsoring the Great Race for years. Every couple of years, the family adds another car into the race. This year they decided to let their youngest son, Trevor join the team. Trevor asked me to come along as his navigator.

Since Team Stahl has been competing for a few years, we didn’t go into the rally totally blind. Trevor’s Dad, Ted, taught me how to decipher the day course packets and how to calibrate our Speedo. We also knew that we would be going ¾ of the way across the United States in a cockpit no bigger than a love seat through some of the hottest areas in the U.S.

The Great Race has a motto: Ride, Repair, Repeat. After this race, I know why. Every day you are fixing something on the car. Sometimes you are literally up all night working on the car to make it race ready for the next day.

This happened to us in Lake Havasu, AZ, where we ended up rebuilding our transmission all night in temperatures above 100°F in a local man’s personal garage at his house.

One thing that really stood out throughout the whole race is how friendly and helpful the competitors are. Other teams are all the time giving you pointers or willing to answer any questions you have. They will also stay up with you all night and help you work on the car, so you can race the next day.

Lastly, the Great Race allows you to get reacquainted with how beautiful our country really is, by driving down back roads and also some of the most historic routes that formed the foundation of America.

It is hard to explain the excitement as you drive under the blow-up arch each day and see thousands of people lining the street taking photos and cheering as you pass. Sometimes the crowd is lined up three to four people deep.

The only thing that could top that is when you have traveled 2,400 miles across America, overcoming many obstacles such as mechanical issues and Mother Nature, and you pull down onto the Historic Santa Monica Pier and drive under the blow-up arch for the last time.

Finally, in front of tens of thousands of people, Motormouth and Corky Coker tell you that you have finished the race as the number one Rookie team. I immediately became overjoyed.

Just to think—four days prior, we were going to call it quits and put our car on the trailer because of transmission issues.

The Great Race is an amazing life experience in which we have made many lifelong friends.

Some time in August of 2014, I was reading Hemmings Motor News and saw an advertisement for the 2015 Great Race. The advertisement said, "A Time-Speed-Endurance Rally for Vintage Cars." I had no idea what that meant, but it looked like fun, so I called the phone number and got a hold of Jeff Stumb.

Jeff is the Director of the race and answered my questions. I had never been in a rally, didn’t know what to do or where to do it. I asked Jeff, what can I do to get the most out of this experience? I’m 70 years old and I only want to do this if I’ll have fun. Jeff started me on one of the most fun journeys I’ve ever had.

First he asked if I had a car. I have several cars, but I wanted to enter a car that was suited to the course, so the research began. The Great Race website provides all the help you need, from preparing your car, to calibrating your speedometer, and more.

I decided to buy and build the car first. (1939 Buick Business Coupe). After locating and purchasing the car, we used the Rules and regulations to guide our restoration.

I called Jeff again to ask how many cars fail to finish and why. He gave great advice, helping every time I called. He said to make sure your car is race ready, this race is hard on cars, you cannot expect to roll a vintage car out of the garage and expect it to go the 2,400 miles.

He also said make sure it’s comfortable, you will be spending 9 days driving every day between 250–300 miles. He said to put miles on your car, drive between 600–700 miles, to be sure it’s ready.

Taking Jeff’s advice, I headed to Las Vegas from Phoenix. We broke down three times and took three days to make a five-hour drive. We weren’t ready.

After that trip, we rebuilt the engine, installed a second fuel pump, a new alternator, etc. On two other testing trips, we broke down twice.

We finally felt we’d worked out all the kinks and took the car for a trial rally in Missouri, allowed for Rookies, and broke down after one day of racing. Shipping the car back to Phoenix, we were pretty discouraged.

Learning how to rally was as foreign to me as learning a foreign language, but Jeff encouraged me to continue watching the tutorials on the website and call a fellow racer named Wayne Bell in Las Vegas.

Wayne told us to come up to Vegas and he would help us out, so off we went. He helped us not once, but twice with building our performance charts for the car, and tutored me on navigating.

Something happened that really surprised us at our practice rally in Joplin, Missouri. Everyone was helping us. They helped us with navigation and with mechanical problems. They helped us with the calibration of our speedometer, and people gave us spare parts.

We only raced for 1½ days before we broke down and had to ship the car back to Phoenix, once again. We were discouraged, but on the plane ride home, I wrote on a cocktail napkin my Great Race Goals:

Being the eternal optimists, we continued to work on the car and practice driving and navigating. When the final day came to ship the car to Kirkwood, Missouri, Joe Perkins and I flew into St. Louis ready for the race.

We had a chase vehicle, driven by Scotti Lee, PhD, a former technical executive with Ford Motor Company. This little dysfunctional "Team 92" was finally ready after 10 months of preparation.

After the awards ceremony, we loaded the car on a truck and shipped it to San Francisco as the centerpiece at a July 4th company picnic. Then Joe Perkins and I headed for LAX and jumped on our flight back to Phoenix.

We were tired and slept the entire flight. When we landed in Phoenix, while standing at the baggage carousel, Joe turned to me and said, "Larry, that was the most fun I’ve ever had in my life." And I wish I had said it first!

I hope this encourages rookies to join the Great Race. For us, we’re only Rookies once.

Who could ever anticipate what their first Great Race would be like? We sure couldn’t. When we lined up for the start in St. Paul, Minn., in 2013, we were nervous, excited and hoping to have some fun. By the time we finished, we were tired, exhilarated—and having so much fun that we’ve kept coming back every year since!

Your rookie year in the Great Race is all about learning. How to get your car ready for the road every morning; how to efficiently transport your gear from one stop to the next.

You watch the veteran teams and see how they handle things. You strike up conversations and learn that everyone is eager to give you a hand, to loan you a tool, to stick their head under your hood and help you figure out why the dang thing won’t do what it’s supposed to.

You also quickly learn that the Great Race staff and crew are utterly devoted to making this the best possible experience for everyone involved.

From Corky Coker and Jeff Stumb right on down to the kids selling race programs, there’s not a single one of them who won’t do anything to help their teams.

You also quickly learn that Brian Goudge, aka Motormouth, is a font of information on everyone and everything connected with the race.

We have loved being with friendly, energetic people who love old cars. What better way to spend 10 days than traveling through our beautiful country with this group?

The Great Race: "an event of a life-time that you can do every year." I wasn’t sure this was true for me when I was first talked into this. I knew that Bill, my husband, who had previously been a navigator, wanted to participate in the 2011 Great Race as a driver this time.

He and his good friend, Terry, had done the 2007 Great Race together. But Bill felt his "talents" were better served as a driver. So I grudgingly accepted to be his navigator—on a trial basis.

We drove across the country in the Fall of 2010 from Penn Valley, CA, to Chattanooga, TN to enter the Coker Tire Challenge.

Because this was a "trial run" to see if I could do this for the Great Race in 2011, let alone even enjoy being a navigator, we hauled our 2007 Mini Cooper on our trailer as our Car of Choice.

I was terribly intimidated and in awe of the "old timers" who arrived that Fall in Chattanooga. These participants came year after year, because they loved the sport, and loved the camaraderie of their fellow participants.

I just felt there was no way I was going to fit in and be able to compete with them. My family will tell you, I do not have a competitive bone in my body. This, I thought, was probably not going to work for me.

On our first day out, probably during the first hour of the competition— the "BUG" hit! I was egging Bill on and declaring that "we can do better! Come on! Let’s get with it!" And I’ve been egging him on ever since.

This navigating business is very addictive and while we will probably never get THE BIRD [grand champion eagle trophy], I am bound and determined to do my very best to help our team place well.

We goof up; we sometimes don’t concentrate toward the end of the day; we make mistakes…but in the end, it is one of the most fun activities we do together as a husband and wife team!

Our first rally was the initial Coker Tire Challenge in 2006 and to say we knew nothing about rallying is an understatement. Attending rally school was like listening to a foreign language, even with veteran Great Racers providing remedial help it was too much for us to comprehend.

We had no idea what was happening or what the rally maneuvers meant for us to do. For example, at the stops, we would sit there for 15 seconds because we didn’t know better.

By the end of the weekend, we realized how much we didn’t know but also knew it was something we wanted to do. We like cars, travel and competition, so the Great Race is the perfect sport for us to share.

Our plan was to prepare for the 2007 Great Race. We bought a speedo, stop watch, big kitchen wall clock, and even tried to make performance charts, so we thought we were ready.

There was no Rookie Mentoring Program at that time, so we had no training or materials to guide us. Before the start, we found other Rookies who had our same anxieties and concerns.

With little preparation and even less knowledge, off we went on an adventure of epic proportions.

At the beginning of The Great Race, we knew we needed to calibrate our speedo, but were confused as to why and how.

We did the speedo calibration run, guessed at how to adjust, made the changes and never changed again the entire race, since we thought one speedo setting was all that was needed.

On the first day we thought we did well, until we got confused on how to get to the finish line.

There were other challenging times, such as taking the wrong road and after driving a distance, determining we needed to turn around.

We found it necessary to ask many, sometimes ridiculous, questions to Veterans who were always willing to give advice and support as the race progressed.

And if any of the Rookies gained insight, we shared with all the others. There was much excitement and celebration when the first Rookie got an ACE—a score of 0 seconds on a leg.

Another of our mistakes was getting lost in a maze. After turning down various roads, we found the correct car ahead of us, and with much luck we had a 1-second leg.

Along the way, we realized that nothing stops a Great Racer as we went through torrential downpours, extremely hot weather and even a horrific hail storm.

On day six, we got our first ACE which made us feel like rally pros.

As we say, it is better to be lucky than good, and with that luck, we finished the 2007 Great Race 3rd for the Rookie Class.

The special bond among the Rookie Class of 2007 still exists, and we have continued to help and support each other as veterans.

All along the route, we were amazed at the cheering crowds and felt like celebrities. There is a carnival atmosphere when we arrive at each venue.

It certainly was a surprise and thrill to be asked for our autograph. We enjoyed sharing information about our car and the spectacular adventure of The Great Race.

There was no way we could have even imagined the fun and excitement we had on our first Great Race. Yes, it was tiring and at times stressful, but it was an amazing time that we will always remember.

Obviously, we are hooked on The Great Race, since we schedule our other activities around this.

Our family and friends at home know we will not be available when it is rally time.

Some are curious as to how we can do this as a husband & wife team, and our response is that this is the greatest fun we can share. Cooperation and teamwork are required to do well.

When asked what is the best thing about The Great Race, the answer is always: the people.

Our fellow Great Racers are family and our arrival at each event is like a reunion. Our friendships extend beyond Great Racing with frequent calls and visits.

We started as a team that knew nothing about this sport and now we are proud to be a member of The Great Race family.

My first Great Race, in 2007, was lots of self learning without instruction books, mentors, etc. Just sign up and learn as you go.

That was the last year of the 14-day coast-to-coast races, so it was a long, sometimes frustrating, mistake-filled, learning experience.

But my driver buddy, Terry, and I were able to finish 5th place out of 24 rookies.

And we were able to meet our four goals:

I was hooked, but unfortunately there were no races again until 2011 and by that time, I needed another car and a navigator.

I convinced my wife, Carolyn, to try navigating, and we purchased a 1936 Packard 120B for the 2011 Great Race.

We and the Packard completed five Great Races. We also worked together with the Great Race organization to improve the rookie experience.

Rookies now have lots of help with a "how to" book and instructional DVDs, veteran mentors, and seminars to help make their rookie race a wonderful experience.

2005 was my Rookie year for the Great Race. The route that year was from Washington DC to Tacoma, Washington.

I was beyond excited to see what this was all about and to travel the more northern route across the United States.

Our daughter was 8 and our son was 5 at the time, so we rented a van for my parents to drive them and they joined us as our support crew. We drove a ’58 DeSoto in this race.

We arrived in Washington DC not knowing exactly what to expect, but Chad had run the race the year before, so he knew a lot more than I did.

I did learn a lot on this race. One of the most memorable days was one in which we were given "Emergency Instructions" with our daily instructions that we picked up that morning.

I remember we were at the Iowa 80 truck stop and the wind was blowing really hard, but I was diligently going through and making all the necessary changes to signs and instructions as the pictures showed.

About mid-morning, several cars got caught up by a train so we were closer than a minute apart.

All of the sudden, my instructions said to make a right turn, so I told Chad to turn. The car in front of us was Bill Harper and Larry Blair in their 1937 Green LaSalle.

Chad asked me if I was sure we were correct, because he knew they would not make a mistake, so I showed him the instructions and off we went.

Then Chad looked in his rear view mirror and saw that the car behind us went straight and questioned me again.

After about 20 minutes, we saw Michael Martin in another car on the side of the road looking a little "lost" and turning around.

What I failed to see was in small print on the emergency instructions there was a note to delete Instructions 25–75.

After going approximately 20 miles out the way, we hurriedly returned back to the spot where I told Chad to turn right and everyone else went straight.

To this day, I am still nervous when I get "Emergency Instructions." It made for a good story and when we got to lunch I was really upset.

One of the other wives, Sheryl, known as the Shopping Queen, told me not worry about it and to "go buy a new pair of shoes."

To top it all off, we broke down later that day in a corn field in the middle of Iowa, so it made for a very eventful day, but we still had fun.

One of the most memorable city stops that year was in Twin Falls, Idaho. When we arrived that evening, each car had a sponsor that spent time with us and had all kinds of goodies.

Ours was Wells Fargo and they even had a stuffed animal for our kids. Our children had a great trip that day too; they got to swim in the Snake River.

The 2005 Great Race was my first and one of my favorite Great Races of all time.

We didn’t do very well in the competition, but we had a great time and got to see so many parts of the country that we would never get to see otherwise.

We have friends all over the United States from the Great Race and even go visit some of them often.

The Great Race is all about family and seeing the country on back roads and small towns. It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that we have been fortunate enough to do several times.

1. My first chance at X-Cup came about the summer that race came through my auto shop teacher’s hometown in up-state New York. At the start of the next school year, he began to tell us about his experience with all the exciting cars, people, atmosphere, and energy it created during the several hours it was there. Getting us interested as a shop class project idea, we began to work together to be the first ever high school team to participate in the Great Race. We built a one-of-a-kind speedster, raised our own money through events and fundraisers to pay our way as a team, and participated in the next event from Tacoma to Toronto in 1996.
2. X-Cup helped me to learn many skills that I still use today. I quickly learned the importance of teamwork, public speaking, project and budget management, marketing, and the satisfaction of achieving goals we set. These are all skills I believe we all learn at some time, but X-Cup certainly gave me a head start.
3. Team building as a part of X-Cup is certainly unique. It is something special when a group of distinctive individuals come together to participate in the Great Race. A special bond is formed among those individuals on the team that is both hard to describe, and hard for others to understand unless you have been through the experience.
4. My time in X-Cup feels like it was just yesterday. Already over 15 years ago now, X-Cup is a part of who I was then, and who I am today. Probably the biggest thing it left me with is, nothing is impossible with hard work and determination.
5. Exploring America through Great Race X-Cup does broaden your perspective a lot. At 16-years-old, being from a small town and getting to discover America and the diversity of its people firsthand from one town to the next, just makes you realize how genuine people can be in so many ways.