Great Race 2011 - Epilogue

Sunday, June 19th

So after a 30 hour drive from Vermont, I finally made it home. A few post race thoughts, ponderings, and pics. The rumor going around for next year's race is Dollywood to Hollywood - but that is about as firm as jello.

Here is a picture of the finish-line in Bennington, VT. Lots of people turned out to greet us and that always makes for a nice conclusion. Corky and Jim did an excellent job of making the 2011 event first-class. Thanks to everyone: Wes, Jeff, Tommy, and the list goes on and on....

Below, a couple of pictures of Howard and Doug Sharp's winning 1911 Velie. Boy, that's a BIG chicken!! They run oil in the radiator in lieu of water - this allows them to run higher temps and not worry about boiling out the fluid. Rumor has it that this car will now be retired - nice to go out on top, eh!?!?!

Here's our 2nd place plaque for Sportsman. Like I said before, since we finished 14th overall, we don't move up to Expert. Whew! It's humbling to see some of these teams in action - I'm happy to stay in Sportsman for awhile!

Here's a nice picture of the stress crack in my speedster's bodywork - that welded seam just split. I wonder if I can send the repair bill to the NY dept of Transportation????

Here's another good example of Southern Engineering: I had to zip-tie the alternator back to prevent the belt from squealing. What's funny about this is if you look at May's blog and the race in Grove, OK, you will see this same alternator zip-tied in a different direction. Ahhh, my engineering professor would be proud of me now.....

Here's a nice pic of the lunch stop in Chambersburg, PA. It's a beautiful city and lots of nice people!

The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. The Babe Ruth display was my personal favorite.

this is the one I wanted to take home from the Saratoga Automobile Museum in Saratoga Springs, NY. Very cool....

I saved the best for last. Here's Bud with the truck and trailer. Now one might ask, "If you're racing cross country, how does your truck and trailer get to the finish?" the answer: Bud. For the first time, Joe and I needed help and Bud was there. He was a combination crew-chief, man-Friday, party-planner, and logistics whiz. Plus he dealt with everything from looking for my lost wallet (which wasn't) to buying beer for rookies. Thanks Bud. We quite literally could not have done this race without you! Thanks.

(Editor's note: now that I think about it, I was a history major. So I never really had an engineering professor. But I did DATE an engineering major so I suppose that close enough....)