Dave Reeder and Sawyer Stone pull into lunch in Hazelton in their 1932 Ford Three-Window Coupe. The former Great race champions are currently in second place in the Grand Champion division and 9th overall.
Roads are getting bumpier and the competition is getting tighter as we approach Friday’s Grand Finale in Bennington. Teams left Hershey, Pennsylvania, yesterday morning and tackled the mountains of northeast Pennsylvania to a lunch stop in Hazelton. They continued into downtown Binghamton, New York, for the evening.
Although Team Hemmings had their second perfect-score Ace of the event, they finished with a score of 20.25 seconds. That would normally be considered a great day of racing for most participants, but great scores were the rule of the day, and the Aces were also being handed out to many other racers. Their score was only the 30th best of the day, though they still moved up to fifth in the Sportsman’s Class and 21st overall.
Winner of the day was the team of Tim and Alex Miller in their 1931 Ford Model A Roadster, with an Ace and a total score of 3.22 seconds. With just two days left, the Knowles/Gentry team still leads for the overall title at 26.73 seconds, but two other teams are only five seconds back. Full results are available at www.greatrace.com.
Thursday, the race travels across New York from Binghamton to Cooperstown for lunch, then on to the Saratoga Auto Museum for dinner. Racers are also no longer allowed to drop any bad scores on these last two days, which should have a marked difference in the final scores for Thursday and Friday.
Several local car clubs brought out their classic cars and trucks to greet racers at the Hazelton lunch stop, including this great 1957 GMC pickup.