Rowland Genealogy will be “closed” from June 20 to Jul 17, 2023, as Ron Rowland goes on the road. On June 21, I will be flying to St Augustine, Florida to compete in the 2023 Great Race. The green flag drops on June 24, and the checkered-flag-finish will occur nine days later on July 2 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Then, I will be vacationing in Colorado for another two weeks.
The Great Race is open only to vintage vehicles manufactured in 1974 or earlier. It is not a top-speed race, instead, it is an endurance time, speed, distance (TSD) rally where the winner is the team with the closest to perfect time over the nine days and nearly 2,000 miles. Each team consists of a driver, a navigator, and a vintage vehicle. This year, three vehicles manufactured in 1916 will be competing.
I will be navigating car #84, a 1970 VW Karmann Ghia, which is owned and driven by Mark Shaw. We will be competing in the Expert Class as a result of my experience in prior events (1986-1994). A total of 132 teams have entered and will be competing for the $160,000 in prize money. The winning team will be taking home $50,000.
The only navigational tools allowed are a speedometer (without an odometer), an analog time-of-day clock, a stopwatch, and the day’s route instructions. All phones, calculators, GPS devices, and maps are strictly prohibited.
Schedule
The following image shows the dates, lunch stops, and overnight stops for this event. All competing vehicles will be on display for about two hours at each overnight stop.
Follow Rowland on the Road
You can follow the progress of the Great Race on either its website or Facebook page.
- The Great Race Blog will post an article on each day’s coverage that typically includes more than two dozen high-resolution photographs.
- The Great Race Scores page has 11 tabs: one for the pre-race Trophy Run; one for each of the nine competitive stages; and the Cumulative Championship Results.
- I will not have the time to update my personal blog at ronrowland.com during the event, although I have posted a few articles about getting ready for this year’s race, including:
- 2023 Great Race Route, which includes a great picture of the 1965 Mustang we planned on driving
- Auburn 2023 Great Race Spring Rally, which describes last month’s “get ready” event where I navigated for Erin Stahl-Liberty in her 1962 Chevrolet Nova.
- Great Race Preparation, which describes the events surrounding our last-minute vehicle change from the ’65 Mustang to the ’70 Karmann Ghia, and does so in a lyrical format.
More About The Great Race
To learn more about the Great Race and what it is like to compete, check out:
- The FAQ contains the answers to many of your basic questions.
- Great Race 101, are you ready to take a deep dive? This 46-page class will teach you what you need to know if you want to compete, or it may just scare you away completely.
Awesome, Ron! Good luck!
Good luck Ron, sounds like huge fun 🙂
Best of luck!