Whitesboro will be pit stop for cross-country race

The 25th annual Great Race will make a pit stop in Whitesboro on July 6. The Race is a 4,000-mile cross-country competition of time that tests the endurance of classic cars. The official pit stop will be at Trollinger Park where all cars are required to stop for 30 minutes.

This is a great time for spectators to see the cars and even talk to the drivers. “If you're a car buff they love to talk about their vehicle,” said Janis Crawley, Economic Development Director and former president of the Whitesboro area Chamber of Commerce.

The Race commemorates the 1908 race in which six automotive teams from four counties set out to prove the reliability of automotive technology. The 1908 teams traveled from New York City to Paris, France. Today’s race will involve about 80 teams driving cars ranging from a 1910 Selden Raceabout to a 1969 Porsche 911T. “The Race is really about adventure on the open roads of American,” said Bill Ewing, CEO of Rally Partners Inc., in a Great Race press release. Rally Partners Inc. is the organizer of the competition.

The Great Race is not a race for the fastest time, but rather for the “perfect” time, which is determined by a computer before the race. Competitors strive to match this time.

Twenty minutes before the start of each day the teams are given instructions for the day’s course which include every start, stop, speed change and turn instruction, as many as 400 instructions. The instructions are highly detailed, but do not contain any street names or highway numbers. For example, “At stop sign, pause for 15 seconds, turn left, then proceed at 45 mph.”

The race teams consist of a driver and a navigator. The navigator is responsible for keeping the driver on-route with very limited tools at his or her disposal. The teams must rely on a pencil, paper, a state-of-the-art speedometer, stopwatch, time-of-day clock and their sense of direction to stay on course. Teams come are all ages, all income levels, and from all over the world. From a junior high student, last years winning navigator, to NASCAR team owner Jack Roush.

Race coordinators secretly locate checkpoints through out the course to check competitors’ speeds as they drive by the checkpoints. The competitors are penalized for every second they are early or late. Officials then multiply the total by a different number depending upon the age of the car. The competitors are awarded points based on each day’s finishing position and bonus points for zero scores throughout the race. The Grand Champion is the team that has the highest score at the end of the day.

This year’s race is special because not only is it the 25th year of the race, but it will also include alternative-fuel and hybrid powered vehicles to prove the technology in real world driving conditions. This new and special part of the race, the Innovation Cup, will have scoring that is a 50/50 ratio of fuel efficiency and the traditional precision driving.

“The Great Race was founded to celebrate people’s love affair with the automobile. The 25th Anniversary Great Race celebrates that love affair by including the next generation of automobile in a competition alongside historically significant classic automobile,” Ewing said.

The race will begin in Concord, N.C. on June 30 and end in Anaheim, Calif. on July 14. Competitors will stop in 45 different locations for pit stops, lunches and overnight stays with one day off in Irving, Texas. Participants are competing for a $350,000 prize.

The Chamber of Commerce is also sponsoring a Cruise Night and other activities on July 6. “Since the great race is coming into town we decided to incorporate a Whitesboro cruise night into that,” said Dave Blaylock, Whitesboro area Chamber of Commerce Great Race committee member. “[T]his benefits the businesses that are open at the time.”

Activities, which include a car display, games, a live remote with KMAD and the cruise, will begin at 3:30 p.m. and last until 10:00 p.m. The Chamber hopes to make the Cruse Night an annual event.

The Great Race cars will begin arriving at 3:45 p.m. with the last car leaving at 5:45 p.m. “We're really excited because this is the first time for Whitesboro to do this. And it reaches a whole different group of people than the Peanut Festival,” said Lynda Anderson Chamber staff.