Great Race Day 9

Dave and Duane's Great Race came to a close today on the Santa Monica pier. What a glorious spot.

We did well. Team June Bug finished third in the Rookie Division. We also won the first stage rookie daily award. Two nice plaques and some money.

Today we rallied around Los Angeles. The course included a trip through the Los Angeles National Forest. Quite a nice place.

We were also treated to Los Angeles stop and go traffic as we went to Santa Monica. My arm is tired from shifting.

Tomorrow we start home to Davenport.

This was all the adventure we thought it might be. I can't thank Dave enough. He really was a great navigator.

Great Race Day 8

We made it to San Bernardino. Just one more day and this adventure comes to an end. I'm so happy to have met so many wonderful people.

Team June Bug is in third place in the Rookie Division. We gained a spot due a mechanical failure on another car. Not the way we wanted to move up. We still race tomorrow. Nothing is final.

The run from Lake Havasu was beautiful. We rallied in Joshua Tree National park. What an incredible experience.

Tomorrow we go to Santa Monica and finish on the legendary pier.

Great Race Day 7

It is HOT! We're in Lake Havasu. When we rolled in it was 117. At 10:45 it's 106. At times driving I didn't want to  touch the black steering wheel.

We are still alive and well. Another mixed results day. We are holding on to fourth place in the Rookie Division. Today is going to be tough.

The wild burros in Oatman were quite interesting. The scenery coming through the mountain pass was spectacular. Dave is taking pictures. I can hardly wait to see them.

On to San Bernardino.

Great Race Day 6

Day 6 is in the books. No perfect legs. We did have four legs with a one second error. Not bad. We sit in fourth overall in the Rookie Division. It is really getting tight heading into the final three days. Anything can happen.

We had to drive through a controlled brush burn. I couldn't see a thing. Not a good feeling.

We stopped for lunch in Winslow, Arizona. Except they ran out of food. Luckily, a Navajo family were making sandwiches to sell. Not a good deal.

The other downer was the June Bug not wanting to engage her starter. Dave pushing for the clutch popping got us going through the afternoon. After she cooled off and we fiddled with some wires she started right away. Goes with the Great Race motto. "Ride, repair, repeat."

On to Lake Havasu by way of Oatman tomorrow.

Great Race Day 5

Day 5 and we're still alive. Who can believe it. Team June Bug is still in the hunt. We gained a place in the Rookie Division. We are now third by cumulative adjusted score. This can change real fast.

The New Mexico landscape was truly majestic. Today was our first truly hot day. It pushed 100. The car complained a bit,  but soldiered on. Lots of cars stopped running in the heat.

We were treated to a tasty lunch at the Unser Family Museum. Al Unser was there with his wife to talk to the Great Racers. Dave and I spoke to him one on one for a few minutes. Turns out he was once passed going up a snowy mountain road by a Volkswagen. He also mentioned he had owned a few.

Dinner in Gallup was pretty good. Again, lots of folks showed up to see the spectacle.

This is quite the adventure.

Tomorrow we go to Flagstaff.

Great Race Day 4

Pretty good day today. We were able to visit the Cadillac Ranch on our way out of Amarillo. Crazy place, that.

We had long flat stretches of rallying. The scenery was beautiful. Even with one eye on the speedometer at all times. We saw a road runner in the road. First time bird for me.

Santa Fe gave us a great welcome. We parked the cars around the town square. Hundreds of people visited.  The dinner was first class Mexican. Quite a treat.

Our scores improved a lot from yesterday. We are holding fourth place in the Rookie Division. Hard to tell how it will end. We have a lot miles to go and they are old cars.

Overnight in Gallup tomorrow night.

Great Race Day 3

Day 3 brought the big change in landscape. Rolling out of Oklahoma City things changed dramatically. We will see even more as we get our kicks on Route 66. Interesting flat terrain when we got to Amarillo today.  You can see for miles. 

Our scores were not as good as the first two days. A lot of factors caused us to be late to most check points. The Texas panhandle winds at a steady 30 mph was one of them. We sit at fourth overall in the Rookie Division. Still in the money.  But it's only day three of nine.

The June Bug continues to run strongly. She is more ready every morning than I am.

Today we're off to Santa Fe.

Great Race Day 2

Today was exciting for its own reasons. Our scores were pretty good for most of the legs. We did score an Ace for the fourth leg. However, due to things like a pick up truck exploding on the road ahead of us getting us rattled,  our final leg was 34 seconds off. Hopefully, this will work out to be one of the five they throw out for Rookies.

We slid down to eighth of forty overall in the Rookie division and 52nd overall. This is using raw scores. The final results are far from in.

Unfortunately, it looks like fourteen cars are having trouble or have abandoned. The June Bug continues to run strongly.

We will see what tomorrow brings.

Great Race Day 1

WOW! I don't have the energy to describe our Great Race Day 1. Thousands of people saw us off in Kirkwood. The sun shone brightly all day.

Hundreds of people came out in Rolla at the lunch stop.

Best of all, we finished first in our division. We are competing against thirty nine other  .  Rookie teams. We  even had a perfect score on the first leg. We sit at 20th of 117 overall at the end of day one. Tomorrow we start again.

WOW

Warm up Rally Today

Well today was the Warm up half day rally. The rally is called the Hagerty Trophy Run. We rallied in Illinois on Route 66. Pretty cool. By doing it that way we will rally in all of the states Route 66 passed through.

Team June Bug's goal was met. We learned a lot and came in with pretty good times for four of five legs. We ranged from a one second error to five second error. One of the legs was not so good. That's okay. Today was all about learning. And learn we did.

Tomorrow we start in earnest.

Got through tech inspection no sweat

We are in the program.

We cruised through tech inspection with no issues. The June Bug is official in every way. They even deflated our tires and refilled them with nitrogen for free.

We made it to the start

We made it to the start at Kirkwood.  Today was all about getting here.
Our mentors met us in the hotel lobby. Nicer people you won't find. I feel so lucky to have them.

When we drove in the car seemed to take me to a parking spot. Right next to the other VW in the rally. I guess June sniffed out her own kind.

Here are some photos of the cars in the rally. Just a small sample. June is the yellow VW.

Twas the night before

Well, tomorrow morning we leave for Kirkwood, Missouri. Tonight we finish packing and sorting out details.

I'm excited and happy to get started.

One week to go!

Well, we are one week away from traveling to the start of The Great Race in Kirkwood, MO.  I have not written for quite a while.  

Many, many things have happened during our preparation.  Dave and I completed three sets of car performance curves.  This is very tedious and boring, but necessary.  The car performed pretty well through all of this driving back and forth.  Each set of curves requires 96 (yep 96) passes to gather data.  We got it done.

We uncovered and fixed three small gasoline leaks.  Smelly and somewhat dangerous.  We also found a transaxle seal leak and had the mechanic fix that.  New tires mounted. Speaking of the mechanic, he is GREAT.  He works out of a small shop in Folletts, Iowa.  Quite a find.  He did all sorts of maintenance for us.  He also installed a new fuel pump and put in electronic ignition.  It seemed everything he did the car made it run better.

We are making piles of things to take along.  I have boxed up the spare parts.  I have my tool set assembled.  We have lots of data and guidance from lots of wonderful people.  Another practice session this Saturday is scheduled.

I guess now it will be up to us to make it happen.