IML: Great Race Report 14 (Final?)- Imperial Expeditionary Force (61)

Good Readers:

As usual, the real blog, with pix, is at http://www.dte.net/project61/No%20Excuses.htm

But for those of you with no speedy access or no interest in pictures, the text:

Day 17: Stage 14

On our last day, John Classen is simultaneously cruel and kind. We have a shorter run day. A couple of timed laps around Infineon Raceway,

then through the Napa valley wine country (NOTE: there are fewer vines here then there are nut trees in the infinite orchards of the Central Valley). The brief span of today’s run is probably a safety device, unless you realize that John has found some of the narrowest, twistiest, hilliest roads of the entire trip – and likely of the entire continent – just as a sort of good-bye hug. Most driveways are wider and straighter and more level and none have the combination of disorienting staccato-flashing dappled sun through covering trees with a rally’s strict speed goal. These are places no Imperial was meant to go, especially not on a schedule, and with one wheel’s brake still lame and sore from its transcontinental exercise. But it’s cool, and the end is near – like all such, bittersweet in expectation and fulfillment.

I think today is the only day I actually snapped at my co-pilot (as opposed to the torrent of kindly-meant verbal abuse I applied in jest throughout the run). Dave is brilliant and unstinting in all his efforts – both fool and friend enough to both do this with me and even pay for a healthy chunk of it. But he can be, from time to time, just a wee bit bossy (hey, it’s a navigator’s job!) and on this last day, when our attitude had lost any edge of competitiveness, maybe fatigue slumped my general tolerance level for taking orders. Sorry, ol’ pal! Anyway, we’re past it in seconds and almost get into the groove again. We turn in a respectable time after two shaky first legs at the racetrack. The running ends with a lunch at Charlie Goodman’s “CHECKERS” auto museum, while we wait for the final tallies to be figured.

Thanks, Charlie – great show!

We pull into the Finish Line arch at San Rafael, on the strip where American Graffiti was shot. As we come under, we see a daily score of 42 seconds and our overall score of 8m17s. And we score another perfect leg Ace (our fourth). We finish 50nd overall and 10th among rookies. Good enough for the secondary goal of the Buddy Trip of the Decade (I’m Crosby to Dave’s Hope – because I can sing).

We are visited by another IMLer: Mark Boehme. Good to meet you, Mark!

The overall winners of the Great Race are Reeder and Stone. Stone is Sawyer Stone, a 13 year-old young man, navigating for his Grandfather on their 4th try. After 4100 miles, their final score of 2m5.4s takes the cake (and $100,000) by a wide margin. I couldn't be happier if we had won ourselves! These are some wonderful folk with the best of intent, attitude, and style. Congratulations Reeder and Stone! Superb, simply Superb! The snowstorm of confetti and strings and applause is all yours. They immediately announced they would use the prize money to fund their run in the Round-the-World Great Race in 2008! WoW!

Out friends the Goudeaus, whom we met in a practice rally in Texas, take the Hemmings Rookie Challenge (a race-within-a- race, to be televised on Outdoor Channel in early September). Again, a terrific outcome.

San Rafael put on a fine afternoon for us. I successfully talked a sample vendor out of an entire carton of ice cream-on-biscotti treats, complete with dry ice keeper, and enjoyed passing those out on the thronged street. I made my way to the office trailer to make a deposit on next year’s race (#22 of 100 allowed entries). Yes, I’ll do it again – if my son, Ethan wants to. Dave has done his – he has a kit airplane to finish now – I wonder if we’ll do a sky trip together?

We had an awards banquet (OK, desert and wine) under a big tent on a little island. We signed one of the 1:18 die-cast models of our car, complete with Great Race stickers, and gave it to the Ewings (heads of Rally Partners, Inc. that put this whole thing together). I hope they start a little collection of Great Race cars in scale. Anyway, THANKS!

With the waning evening, the crowd thinned. Some to later parties, some to bed, and others off to whatever they do next. We began the exchange of contact info with new friends we will try to maintain off the road, too. Here are just some of these new treasures from the road:

The Goudeaus, Todd & Greg: with a host of their Louisiana cousins in tow, they did what they set out to do. Cajuns to the core, these guys are closest to our kindred spirits on this race.

The Johnstons, Teresa and Bill: irrepressible Teresa got her Ace, finally –on the last day, after they almost had to quit the day before from brake failure! Bill, ever the stoic pilot. This is a marriage made in heaven.

Bender & Boone: OK, maybe these guys are just a bit like us, too. Old pals, driving a (relatively) late model convertible. John Bender, driver, is a fierce optimist – Tom Boone, navigator is the organized one. Ahem. Great fun running with you guys!

The Dales, Leon & Ben. Leon, the driest humor and funniest man in the race. Ben the silent sidekick. They drove Leon’s ancient Suburban (the kind that inspired the current Chevy HHR, but it’s REAL). Another budget team, bolstered by great attitude and good humor. Thanks, guys and congratulations!

The Fredettes of the Yellow Truck: father and son, one of three Fredette family teams. A tremendous help to us rookies and ever upbeat and cool, even when second gear went away. Young Eric didn't talk too much, at least not until I talked that whole box of ice cream from the lovely street vendor – perhaps he sees a useful skill there?

Jeff Stumb: another veteran met in Texas – he got us started on the techniques we refined through this race. All around good guy.

Michael Martin: think Hemingway crossed with Jack Benny. This dry Aussie actually built most of the old Hudson racecars here, but he ran his own MG special (a Buchanan by registration). He always parked it for the night under the hotel portico – and no one would tell him otherwise. Existential to the core and worth in gold every moment spent with him in conversation!

Bull & Kasson, the Hemi Boys: local to Troy, just a few miles from my home, these guys signed up soon after we did. We met in Mexico and now we’re friends for life. They drove Dale’s 55 DeSoto sedan and we’re sharing a truck to bring ‘em home! We’re looking forward to a reunion with the Hemmings Motor News team, at a Hemmings Cruise-in later this summer (before the stickers come off).

Staffers & Volunteers! Holy Moly, how did they do it! I shouldn’t pick out any of these incredible people who are the sinews and muscle of the Great Race. Each and every one was a joy to meet and pleasure to know. THANK YOU!

SO many others. I should make a more comprehensive list. I know I’ll omit some who deserve thanks and whom I’ll call again. Put it down to my limited skills of memory and scribble, not to lesser thoughts or regard!

Then, back to the hotel. We sleep deeply, with no alarm set.

Day 18: Homeward Bound

Swag: n., gifts given to visitors or potential customers, usually in promotion of a place or business, associated with a public event.

Every place we stopped, we were given gifts – swag. They ranged from local history books to cookies, to wine to cool wet towels, plus the inevitable rasher of emblazoned T-shirts. We have filled the trunk and back seat wells with swag and this morning, we consolidate. Some has to go, if only to manage shipment home. Dave keeps much less than I do. No foods and no papers for him. Of course, I get to leave mine in the Imp, while he first goes with his nearby friend, Glenn, in Glenn’s two-seat Miata, then takes a commercial flight home to Oregon. I want to spend a little more time with my stuff – there’s been no time yet to read all we received about the places we went, and I imagine that sorting through it at home might be fun done together with my family – it was they who said ‘Yes’ when I proposed to leave them for two weeks to do this. I want to share it as much as I can.

So, as I write this, I’m on the plane headed back East. I should be home by midnight. Then, I have an 8AM meeting tomorrow – back to work! I’d like to close this blogtext with some random thoughts that don't quite fit in the narrative above:

• After 15 days driving, these two old guys got out of this marvelous car without any trace of soreness or backache! Those seats are AWESOME!

• This is the first road trip for me in this car. It is the quietest convertible at speed I have ever driven or ridden! Regular conversation is possible even on freeways (so long as no semi’s are passing by). Why don't they make them like this anymore?

• Sharp-shouldered, original equipment bias-ply tires are OK on smooth roads, but they are wholly unsuited for grooved, patched, or rutted surfaces, where those shoulders grab the surface feature and redirect the car (often suddenly) toward its path and not the one I would like. Time to buy radials, except for show!

• About 40 of the 100 race cars were Model A Fords, and another dozen or so were of similar vintage and appearance, at least to the untrained eye. Many towns brought out their local old car club treasures – often with a similarly large Model A contingent. NOBODY anywhere had an Exner Imperial, other than ours. This car is an outstanding crowd-pleaser.

• The logistics associated with putting on a rolling race-party for two consecutive weeks in multiple cities, on a split-second schedule, with scoring, hotels, food & water for hundreds of people simply boggles my mind! Think major convention, but on wheels, and several times as long! KUDOS EXTRAORDINAIRE to the organizers!

• AS much fun as this was, I do have some environmental guilt. Does it make sense, or is it even moral, to burn that much more fuel, just for the blast? I will work with the Great Race to expand the new technology component. How ideal if the Great Race and its celebration of mobility and endurance can contribute to the development of an environmentally sound mobility for the 21st century!

• America is HUGE! OK, I knew that in principle, but there is no way to convey the sense of being in the middle of her deserts, or watching the Rockies get closer for an entire day of hard running, BEFORE you begin to climb them. All the songs have new and deeper meaning now. Our respect for those who did this on foot and by wagon has moved to sheer reverence.

• America is WONDERFUL. OK some of us vote re-state, some blue; some like beef BBQ with brown beer and some quiche with white wine; but these are all fine shadings of a glorious rainbow of regional cultural variations on a central theme: respect and vitality as we live the dream!

• This has been a voyage of discovery and rediscovery: geographical, cultural, mechanical and inter- & intra-personal. Life IS better of the freeways.

• The Imperial is the ideal car to make this trip. We surely didn't win the Great Race, but we might have – and NO ONE had any more fun doing it than we did!

• I read voraciously- every day. I brought, as I always do, books to read. Didn't happen. Amazing!

• Home will be SOOO good.

• Thanks, Dave.