Hemmings Great Race 2025

[Ohmess]

Every year Hemings runs a time and distance ralley called the Great Race. For 2025, they set off on June 21 from St Paul, MN and finished yesterday in Irmo, SC. So, I ran up there with a couple of the local car guys to see the contestants cross the finish line.

Arrived early and parked next to a 31 Ford and a GTO very close to the finish line

Porsche club signed up as a vendor and got to put up a tent, but they had only two cars:

And the local Ford Model T club was out in force:

Contenstants rolled in over the course of two hours. There were husband/wife teams, father/son teams a father/daughter team and a couple of teams comprised of college kids.

I didn't get a picture of it, but I pulled out my fire extinguisher for the first time since I installed it. A Ford T Bird caught on fire just after pulling in, but the fire was out within a minute.

It was pretty crowded at the finish line, so we wandered around and looked at some of the cars after they finished. Here are some of my favorites:

Only one BMW in the competition - A nice group of guys from MN:

 

[CSteve]

What a great car show == and race. Has anyone on here ever done it?

Do they have a contest at the end for the car with the most stickers?

 

[Ohmess]

I liked it because the process excludes cars that only show up on trailers, and everybody is hands on with their cars to some extent. Makes for a good crowd of people.

As to the stickers, I think the stickers are given out at various checkpoints if they are very close to the correct time. The BMW guys had a ton of them. Overall the winner is whoever comes closest to the overall target time, which is the sum of the target times for each segment of the race. If I heard this correctly, the overall winner was off by 9 seconds from the total target time over the entire course. Obviously, this was a seriously competitive rally.

Next year is Route 66 (but skipping both Chicago and LA).

 

[adawil2002]

Went up to Owls Head Transportation in 2016 & Freeport 2024 & finished in Gardiner Maine at Waterfront Park. There's an Owls Head Transportation Museum Team of 20-25 year old volunteers.

That 2002Tii was in Freeport.
The Maine Plate Volvo is the OHTM entry.
36 Bentley likely always asked "What year is your Bentley"

VERN 73 "What year is your BMW" So I commiserate.
My 2 favorite Old BMW questions.
1) Are you the original owner?
2) You don't drive it in the Winter, do you?
I stopped with the Mad Magazine's books of Al Jaffee's Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions in favor of the alphabetical order word "NO"

 

[rblongboarder]

Very cool - such a wide variety of cars. Thank you for posting all the photos.

I live in the Los Angeles area and will definitely head to the finish line in Pasadena; on my calendar. (What a great mid-summer warm-up for Laguna Seca Historics in August...)

Someday when I get my E3 sorted, I will be a participant.

Here's the official site with additional photos:

greatrace.com | Great Race

www.greatrace.com

And a link to the 2026 race:

https://route66centennial.org/index.php/calendar/national-events/the-great-race

 

[Dick Steinkamp]

Has anyone on here ever done it?

Not The Great Race, but Rod and Custom's Americruise. The NHRA museum at the Pomona Fairplex to the fairgrounds at Lincoln, NE, and return. Not a BMW but a Studebaker hot rod. Great fun, memories, friends, bragging rights.

Bonneville on the return leg...

 

[Ohmess]

Went up to Owls Head Transportation in 2016 & Freeport 2024 & finished in Gardiner Maine at Waterfront Park. There's an Owls Head Transportation Museum Team of 20-25 year old volunteers.

That 2002Tii was in Freeport.
The Maine Plate Volvo is the OHTM entry.
36 Bentley likely always asked "What year is your Bentley"

VERN 73 "What year is your BMW" So I commiserate.
My 2 favorite Old BMW questions.
1) Are you the original owner?
2) You don't drive it in the Winter, do you?
I stopped with the Mad Magazine's books of Al Jaffee's Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions in favor of the alphabetical order word "NO"

I've been to Owls Head. What a great museum.

 

[adawil2002]

I've been to Owls Head. What a great museum.

You've also been here too!

The Wisconsin Auto Museum in Hartford where Kissels were built from 1906 to 1931.
Maine Horseless Carriage 17 is my 1914 KisseKar 4-40 Touring on loan since June 2016.

 

[Ohmess]

I get back to WI at least once a year, and have been to that museum a couple of times, yes. I took this pic of your car:

Someday I would love to ride on the steam engine that they store upstairs that only comes out for joy rides at Christmas:

 

[Nachtycoupe]

What a cool train, talk about Steampunk!...

(2) Porches at a Porsche sponsored event...LOL...same thing happens here. Crazy!