Warwick, Rhode Island to Fargo, ND.

Of the 48 contiguous United States, Rhode Island and North Dakota were the only two that the Great Race had yet to visit at the conclusion of 2021. The race organizers planned a route to connect the two over the nine day race.

Our plan was to run a pair of first generation Chevrolet Camaros in the race. My father-in-law, Ken, and I would be driver and navigator in his yellow 1968 Camaro and my wife, Erin, and her brother, Tom, would drive a blue 1969 Camaro. Despite our best efforts, the ’69 wasn’t ready for the race. Thankfully, the Great Race allowed Erin and Tom to defer until 2023. Erin transitioned into a supporting role for Ken and me alongside her mom, Chris, family friend, Sharon, and uncle Mike.

Chris, Ken, and Sharon drove his truck from Texas to Rhode Island. We shipped the car to the start. I flew to Providence and joined them the day before registration and technical inspection. I was just getting over Covid when I flew to the start. Erin developed symptoms a few days later than I did, so she stayed home until she was well enough to join in a few days after the start.

On Thursday before the race, Dick Shappy hosted dinner at his home on the coast of Narragansett Bay. The cars parked on the grass with the bay in the background. We enjoyed getting a look at some of his classic cars and motorcycles and visiting with our fellow Great Racers.

Friday, June 17th was the Trophy Run. We aced the first leg before getting lost and passing the same checkpoint three times. The skies opened up on the last leg of the day and it rained so hard that we weren’t able to maintain speed because of the poor visibility. Thankfully, Ken had fixed the wiper switch that morning. We were an embarrassing 106th on the Trophy Run with a score of over 4 minutes. We had failed to stay on course and paid the price. The Trophy Run is a warm-up rally and doesn’t count toward the actual Great Race results except as a tie breaker when needed.

The race started Saturday, June 18th at Rocky Point State Park in Warwick, Rhode Island. Thousands of folks turned out to see the start. Many brought classic cars of their own. The streets leaving Warwick were lined with spectators. It was really special. The first day of racing took us to Windsor Locks, CT. There was a brief break at Wayne Carini’s shop on route to the hosted dinner at the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks. We dined under the wing of a B-29 Super Fortress. After dinner, we enjoyed wandering around the museum and seeing the wide variety of aircraft on display. After shaking the rust off on the Trophy Run, we scored a respectable 13 seconds for Stage 1 including a pair of aces.

Stage 2 on June 19th took us from Windsor Locks, CT to Binghamton, NY. Lunch was in Montgomery, NY hosted by Rogo Fasteners. There was a tremendous crowd of spectators at both the lunch and dinner spots. We scored 18 seconds on the day and picked up another ace.

Stage 3 on June 20th took us to Erie, Pennsylvania. Ken and I had a fabulous day of rallying - one of our best on the GR to date. We scored three aces, a pair of ones, and a 24. The 24 late was for a leg where we missed a sign to change speeds. Ken and I were both rattled by a tractor that came out from behind a barn with a pair of forks attached to the bucket. The forks were right at eye level as we approached at speed. Ken quickly got on the brakes, and the farmer cleared the way for us to proceed. I recorded the time delay and we continued on. We realized we missed a speed change when the team behind us passed us. We quickly sped up to hack off the team in front of us but ran out of road to complete the hack. We had a second time delay for a horse and buggy. We had dinner at the beautiful and historic Warner Theater and enjoyed a local beer in a nearby pub. Erin flew into Buffalo and joined the support crew.

Stage 4 took us from Erie, Pennsylvania to Medina, Ohio for lunch and onto Perrysburg, Ohio for dinner. We scored a 5, 3, 4, 2, 2, 12 for a total of 28 seconds on the day. We lost the gas cap along the way and sent the girls searching for it. Our hotel room wasn’t ready when we arrived. Thankfully, Erin found a bottle of scotch to calm our nerves in the lobby of the hotel while we waited for rooms to be prepared until after 10pm. The support crew found us a couple of spare gas caps the next day.

Stage 5 took us from Perrysburg, OH to Plainfield, Illinois. The lunch stop was at the Studebaker Museum in South Bend, Indiana. Their collection was really impressive and we were grateful to have time to explore. We scored 8, 2, 6, 2, 7 for a total of 25 on the day. The legs were all early and included a bunch of turns. I called my mentor, Brad and said we’re early on legs with lots of turns. His reply: “ I showed you how to measure those, right?”. “Um, no..” He proceeded to send me a couple charts that have transformed my timekeeping. He advised me not to try and implement it on the remainder of the race. I, of course, did anyway. He and his wife, Erin have been our mentors from the beginning and they have made a huge difference for us.

Stage 6 took us from Plainfield, Illinois to Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. The bumpy back roads took their toll on the exhaust and an emergency repair was needed. Chris found us a local who would keep his shop open late for us. He welded the offending exhaust bracket and stopped the pipe from banging on the back fender. Brad’s corner data helped and we scored a 1, 0, 1 before coming unglued in the afternoon with a 12 and 25. We scored 39 seconds on the day. The 12 and 25 were among the five legs that would be dropped from our total score for the week.

Stage 7 on June 24th took us from Wisconsin to Duluth, Minnesota. We stopped in Chippewa Falls, WI for lunch. We had a disastrous 2 minute first leg that would eventually get thrown out. The rest of the legs were respectable single digit numbers. 5,2,6,3. I don’t remember what happened on leg 1, but I suspect it was a missed corner and an incomplete hack.

Stage 8 took us from Duluth to Brainerd, and onto People’s Park at Detroit Lakes, MN. We transited to our overnight stop in Fargo after the Parc Ferme. Our score for the afternoon had a couple minute penalty because we didn’t see an emergency sign that specified a new start time. We were able to make a successful appeal and had that leg time corrected. Our corrected scores for the day were 2, 0, 1, 10, 4, 4. We were joined at the lunch in Brainerd by Ken’s cousins Kay and Jim and their daughter Mary Kay. We enjoyed catching up with them during our brief stop.

Stage 9 marked the final day of competition. Ken and I invited Erin to ride along for the day to get some experience with the process. Her presence in the car gave us a 5 second penalty, but the experience was totally worth it. The three of us had lunch at the Fargo Air Museum. We scored 1, 0, 2, 1, 2 on the day. With the 5 second penalty, we got an 11 on the day. We ended up with 10 aces for the event. That was good enough to move us into 5th place in our class and 17th overall. Ken’s cousin Lee and his wife, Connie joined us at the finish in Fargo.

Taylor Merrill and his wife in patriotic gear in Fargo. Taylor has traveled to all of the contiguous states on the Great Race

Thanks to Ken, Chris, Sharon, Erin, Mike and our mentors Brad and Erin for making our second Great Race a huge success.