Sunday Sacramento to Reno

The team left at 9:38 am and arrived back at the finish line around 5:20 pm. We drove over Donner Pass. Crossing the mountains of northern California were breath taking.  We were very close to Lake Tahoe but didn't take the time to drive around it.

We pulled over to the side near the summit and took some pictures.


When we arrived at the hotel in Reno we got everything into the rooms and headed out to get parts for Tag and MaryBeth.  They were having some car troubles.

We decided to head to the finish line early and check out the National Automobile Museum.  We had a chance to walk around and see most of the cars before the teams started arriving.  

One car in particular caught my attention was the 1950 Porsche.  Reminded me of my childhood.  My parents would rally with that car and 5 of us in the back seat.

It was getting close to arrival time so we went outside to watch our team arrive.  Wasn't long and they were back. 

The Museum hosted dinner and drinks.  We ate among the cars in Galley 4.  That is the permanent home of the Thomas Flyer.  

We got to witness the unveiling of the Thomas Flyer.  A special treat for us because the great grandson of George Schuster, the driver of the historic race, Jeff Mahl was with us.

The Thomas Flyer is the 12th car to be inducted into the National Historic Automotive Registry. 

In the parking lot of the hotel many of the teams were fixing cars.  As the days go by more and more repair is needed on the cars.

The team came in with 21st place for the day with a time of 25.22 seconds and a solid second place in the X-Cup division.  Happy Fathers Day!

Saturday Great Race Start

The Great Race starts on Saturday in San Rafael's downtown.  This would be the first day of competition.  Getting the cooler ready and getting everything in the car that need to be in the car went well.

Darrin and I headed down to the start line ahead of the team. We watched as the cars arrived and were parked on the road.  The team had pictures taken with the X-Cup mentor, Jeff Mahl. 

It was an amazing site to see all the cars lined up over seven city blocks.  The amount of people that came out to see the cars off was cool.

The Sharps won the race last year so they were the first to leave.  Mallory got to draw a couple of days ago for the starting position.  They would start in that position for both the Trophy Run and the Race Start.

The team received their instructions the night before so they had plenty of time to mark them up.

Scott and Mallory went out alone the first day.
Ashley rode with us to our first stop in Old Sacramento.  We arrived early so we went to Old Sacramento and walked around the city. 
We stopped in for ice cream inn one of the little stores on the boardwalk.

We then walked a mile to the California Automobile Museum. They were closed for a private party but still let us in. Ashley and I had our picture taken in one of the cars.  Most of the cars in the collection were Fords.

It was cool to see a collection of cars.  There was a Quinceanera going on at the musuem.  It was cute to see all the little kids all dressed up in their formals.

After touring the cars we walked back to the finish line and waited for the team to arrive.

The first cars were due to arrive at 5:35 pm.  The team arrived with smiles on their faces. They felt as if it was a good day.  When they got their times they were pleased.

With a score of 25.22 and placing 21st for the day.

After each day the teams are required to leave their cars parked till 8 pm for the locals to view them.  We never really left the vicinity of our car until time to go.

Some teams stay with their cars and some go get dinner. 

Tuesday and Wednesday pre race

The last two days have been such a blur of activity.

Darrin had to fix the bearings and seals on the trailer.  Before leaving on the trip to California Darrin replaced the axles on the trailer, but his supervisor Mark would not let him replace the seals.  Didn't take long for them to start leaking.

So many of the teams are arriving.  We met Toshi from the Japan Team.  Scott made fun of Toshi's Mohawk.  Toshi is in his 70s and he told Scott that when Toshi gets excited his hair stand on end.  We would come to know Toshi well.

As vehicles were unloaded from the Reliable trucks it would be the first time to get to see the Leslie Special and the Hanibal 8 for me.  It was cool to get that close to them and to get to know the owners of them as well

The host hotel had a reception and that was fun. We hung out with several of the drivers at the hotel.  Joe the Plummer and Corky Coker were at the reception.  Joe is part of the Wondering Troubadours of Finland.  The WTF guys.

Tuesday evening Mallory and I went to get Ashley at the airport.  When we got to the airport I tried to park in the parking garage but the excursion was to tall.  I had to drive over the sidewalk to get out of the garage and drive completely out of the airport and back in to where the departing parking was in order to park.  When I got to where I needed to be i ask the Valet guy for help and he asked me if I was driving the titanic.


On the way back we saw someone run a red light and the camera flash went off.

Mallory said you know you ran a red light.  Yep I sure did.

Wednesday we met Jeff Mahl and took some photos.  Jeff was excited about all the X-Cup teams.  He invited us to the x-cup rookie meeting and said we didn't need to stay but wanted us to meet the other teams.

Wednesday we went to Muir Woods National Monument. The drive up to the top of the mountains was amazing.  Darrin and I rode in the 64 and half and Mallory and Ashley drove in the Excursion.  The roads were very winding and a lot of switch backs.  I thought to myself, These roads have to be freaking Mallory out in that great big truck.

 We walked up the trail about a mile.  We had a limited amount of time to tour today.  The redwoods were amazing and very tall.  The quietness of the forest in the middle of noisy California was striking to me.

After seeing the redwoods we headed back to the hotel and to get something quick to eat.

We all got ready to go and waited in the hotel lobby for the bus to come to take us downtown for the movie.

Tonight we had the special treat of watching the movie "The Great Race" starring Toni Curtis, Jack Lemon and Natalie Wood.  The move had be filmed in 1965 and this was the 50th Anniversary.  It was awesome to get to watch the movie in the historic San Rafael Theater.

Before the show the Leslie Special and the Hanibal 8 were parked out front.  There were costumed characters playing the parts of Leslie and the professor..

The movie was so funny but I was so tired that I could not keep my eyes open.  So when intermission came we never went back into the theater.

Friday Rally School and Trophy Run

We were up early to start the day. Breakfast at 7:45.  We arrived for breakfast along with everybody else. Today we were wearing our team shirts.  They are a big hit. All the teams had their team colors on. Somewhere shoes and some were Sears sucker short jump suits.  We proudly are wearing our tied dyed shirts.   

After breakfast we headed to introduction and rally school. During the introductions they asked the X-Cup teams to stand up. 

Corky Cooker said during his introduction  that God is first, Family second and friends are third and that we are all family here.

This is an event where we have an opportunity to change America one smile at a time.  We can show everybody what a great time we are having using the phrase " It is just what I wanted."

Ashley and Mallory stayed for the second half of rally school. While they were in school. Scott and I ran back to the hotel to get the last minute stuff.

Darrin headed off to help the Japanese team load their extra  media car.  They had a driver fail to show up and needed the car to get to Moline, IL.

As we were leaving to hotel I saw Jeff Stumb getting ready to drive the Lesley Special.

 I asked if I could ride and I jumped in.  We went around the parking lot.  Halfway around we started to run out of gas.  I sure hope this theme of running out of gas does not carry through the entire race.

Last year the team was plagued by brake problems.  We are hoping to not have any problems.

The Hanibal 8 getting loaded in the moving van to head back to Michigan where it lives in the Stahls museum.

Before we knew it was time to start the Trophy run.  I got to ride in the car during the trophy run.  I had not been in a rally car since I was a kid.  Brought back lots of memories.

My dad navigating and my mom driving with 5 of us kids in the back seat of the 1950 Porsche.  I know you are thinking there is not a back seat in a porsche and you are correct.

Watching Mallory calculate where to go and how fast was cool.  She really knows her stuff and also knows how to communicate what she wants clearly.

They got stuck behind a slower car. After the race that team reminded Scott that he had passed them the year before and didn't like to have rocks kicked up at them.

At one intersection they lost 2 seconds.  They did a few minuets were they would run 2 miles an hour faster for 10 or 12 seconds to make up the time.  As we were going luck was on our side, the cow moved out of the road, the garbage truck moved out of the way and we were able to get around a slower team at a stop sign with out loosing any time.

When we were done with the rally we made our way back to the finish line. Not before getting chewed out by a local. 

We barely had time to clean up before we went to the reception at the golf course.  It was a nice  place and the food was good.

We were anticipating who would win the Hagerty Trophy.  I felt the same way I felt when we were waiting to find out if the 37 Cabriolet was going to get a First Place Junior. 

Finally Jeff announces the X-Cup team trophy winner and as soon as he said the team with the time of 20.03 seconds I new it was our team!

We finished the day in 20th place overall.  Back at the hotel we hung out with alot of the teams and got to know them better.

I found Tag and MaryBeth to be very interesting as well as the Troubadours.

Thursday Registration and Measured Mile

We went to the host hotel and picked up the measured mile instructions. Scott, Mallory and Ashley invited me to ride along.  We ran up the 101 and were off by .6 of a second.  Scott and Mallory stopped to figure out the calibration change they needed to make. 

We then returned on the measured mile and we were way off.  Frustrated with the calibration it was left for later to fix.

We returned to the hotel and went to rookie class to meet the other X-Cup teams. Jeff Mahl had asked us to show up just so the other teams could meet us.

Just before the Rookie school was to start Ashley asked the rookie mentor how to figure out the calibration and they think they have a formula that will work for them.

Later that afternoon the formula worked well for them.  Sometimes the hardest thing to do is the best thing to do. It was a simple formula.

As we were leaving to go to the Golden Gate Bridge photo opportunity one of the Japanese drivers asked if he could follow us.  Before we knew it there were seven car following us.  They asked us to drive slow.

We were off to get photos of the car with the Golden Gate Bridge.

 The route we followed took us over a hill and through a tunnel.  We then drove through a old WWII base and arrived with all  seven Japanese cars still behind us.

We got to take photos at the bridge.  Taking photos of the car was a lot of fun.  Scott, Mallory and Ashley were interviewed. 

We returned to the host hotel and they went off to run the measured mile several times.
Darrin and I went over to tech inspections.  We watched the techs put on stickers on the cars.  I listened to the techs asking questions about the cars and what  has been added or subtracted this year.

When the team arrived back from calibrating we all went to lunch.

From lunch we headed out to Sonoma Raceway.  We drove to the beginning of wine valley. We drove into the track.  Darrin climbed in the mustang and got to ride around the track twice.

On the second lap I get a phone call from Scott that he has run out of gas.  Darrin teased Scott about getting the chance to drive around the race track but forgetting to make sure he had enough ga.  He was able to get the car back to the gas pumps at the track.  We took photos and headed out.

Darrin and I went to see the car collection. I spent a lot time talking to Frank who takes care of the cars.  He gave me his phone number so I could call him and pick his brain.  

We rushed back to the hotel for registration and inspection. I found out how to handle media during the race.  It really was a simple process.

When we got to tech inspections Hal slapped the car numbers on the car.  Then a very young girl put stickers on one side and an older gentleman put them on the other side.  He tried his hardest to match the two sides but missed a few.

Hal gave us an extra set so we can fix them when we get back home.

Tonight we went on a dinner cruise.  The boat was packed and they ran out of food.  I had the opportunity to photograph the bay area. Scott took my camera for a while and to lots of candid photos of everybody.


It was nice to have the break from the camera and I think he enjoyed the camera for a while.
The view of San Francisco was awesome and I must have taken at least a 100 photos of it.

Monday pre race week

After breakfast we drove the mustang over to the host hotel.  We met Jeff Stomp the race director in the parking lot where there are keeping all the cars and the trailers.

 We hung around a while and watched cars get unloaded and spoke to many of the teams.  This was a great time for Darrin and I as we met all kinds of new people.

For Scott and Mallory it was fun for them to catch up with old friends.

It was getting close to lunch time so we went into the city.

We drove over the Golden Gate bridge into San Francisco to go to Fishermen's Wharf.  To park the Excursion in San Francisco can be quite a trick.

We ate at Fishermen's Grotto no. 9 on Fishermen's Wharf. I had the Shrimp Creole. The food was amazing.   The views of the hillside and of the boats were amazing.  There was just so much to take in at once.

 We walked around the peers and stopped into several shops.  One of the shops was the Left Handed Shop.  It was a pretty cool shop with items made just for lefty's.

We were hoping to see some seals at the end of peer 39.  We didn't see any but did see Alcatraz and a lot of boats go by.

We drove on Lombard Street as far up as we could before the size of our vehicle prohibited it.  Then we turned and went straight up another street.  I kept thinking we were going to roll over backwards.  I have no idea how those people park their cars perpendicular to the curb on the street by they do.

Went to the top of beacon hill and looked out over the city.  The building and tower at the top were very cool.

We came back to the hotel crossing over the Golden Gate again.

We went over to the parking lot to watch unloading of the cars. Slowly one by one the cars were getting unloaded and we were getting a chance to see them.

Several teams were there just hanging out.  The wind was blowing and it was cold.  An officer hung out and talked with us for hours.

Scott climbed in the back seat for a photo.  We had a good time.

Final Stretch to San Rafael

With only 6 hrs to go we decided on a casual start for the day.  We left Barstow and drove through the desert.

We saw the air force base and the airplane grave yard. There were lots of wind turbines near the base of the mountain pass into California.

We went over the mountains and on the other side the landscape changed. It was green.

The central valley of California is where a lot of produce is grown. For mile's and miles all you could see was trees.

Rows and rows of almond trees and then rows of pistachio trees.  In the middle of the groves there would be a section of flowers planted.

As we got closer to San Rafael the population got thicker and the road go narrower. Although nothing was very tall the buildings got closer and closer. 

We got to the San Jose area and the building were touching each other. 

It was a special surprise for us that when we pulling into town we drove across the Golden Gate bridge.

Seeing the bridge off in the distance was truly exciting.

We found our hotel and unpacked.

Darrin and Scott unloaded the mustang and we took it to dinner.  We went to downtown San Rafael to the State Room.   Scott ordered fried pork belly. It was excellent.  The food was all organic.

The downtown area was still the old buildings.  Lots of mom and pop stores lined the road.  It had the feel of the late 40s and early 50s.

This was going to be a great setting to start the Great Race.  I tried to picture the cars lined up on this street waiting their turn to start.

We checked out the other race hotel and the parking lot for trailers.  Scott talked with the four Reliable truck drivers for a little bit

It was late so we all headed off to bed.