What Is the Great Race?
The Great Race is a competitive, controlled-speed road rally for antique, vintage, and collector vehicles. Teams travel across North America while competing for precision, not speed.
How It Works
Each day, participants receive detailed course instructions telling them where to turn, when to change speeds, and how to navigate the route.
Hidden checkpoints along the course record the exact time each team passes. The goal is to arrive at each checkpoint at the correct time — not first.
Every second early or late adds to a team’s score, so success comes down to timing, navigation, communication, and consistency.
GPS and modern navigation computers are not used for competition. The focus is on the driver, navigator, and car working together.
Questions about eligible vehicles, permitted equipment, modifications, passengers, support vehicles, penalties, or other competition requirements belong in the official rulebook.
Ask the Rulebook →
More Than a Competition
While the rally is competitive, the Great Race is also about the journey.
The route travels through communities across the country, often using scenic backroads and historic highways. Along the way, host cities welcome participants with public lunch and evening stops where spectators can see the cars up close, meet the people behind them, and experience the event for themselves.
For many participants, the friendships, traditions, and experiences along the route are just as important as the competition.
Planning to watch? Visit the Spectator Guide →Historic Cars on the Open Road
The Great Race gives antique and vintage vehicles the opportunity to do what they were built to do: drive.
Rather than sitting on display, these cars travel hundreds of miles through changing terrain, weather, and road conditions.
Vehicles from many different eras, manufacturers, and styles compete side by side, creating a moving automotive history experience in every community the event visits.
Who Is Part of the Great Race?
The Great Race brings together people from many different backgrounds.
Some participants have competed for decades, while others are experiencing rallying for the first time. Teams may include friends, couples, parents and children, siblings, business partners, students, and multiple generations of the same family.
The event also depends on host cities, volunteers, sponsors, support crews, and spectators who help make each stop possible.
Learn about experience, preparation, vehicles, support crews, costs, hotels, Rookie resources, and what prospective competitors should know before entering.
Visit the Participant FAQ →
The Great Race is as much about the people and places along the way as it is about the finish line.
Find Your Way In
Whether you want to compete, learn the rules, attend a public stop, follow the field, or meet the people and cars, start with the path that fits what you're looking for.
More Resources for Future Competitors
Once you're ready to learn more, these resources can help you prepare or find current entry information.
More Than Getting From Point A to Point B
The Great Race is a celebration of automotive history, precision rallying, community, and the people who keep these cars on the road.