Day 2 of the 2018 Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Hagerty consisted of a tough trek across the state of New York. We started our day in Rochester, and made an Eastward run on I-90 to get to the more rural areas of New York. The rolling hills and endless farmland made for beautiful scenery, and we found ourselves constantly waving at the locals, who stepped toward the road to get a closer look. We love it when kids wave at the old cars, and we also love it when people take pictures and videos as we drive by…it’s a great reminder of how special this event is and how many people it reaches. Speaking of reaching people, we had two awesome city stops today, a lunch stop in Norwich, New York and our dinner stop in Troy, New York. Both were packed with people, despite some pretty big rain chances, which eventually led to a shower at both venues.

The lunch stop in Norwich was held at the Northeast Classic Car Museum, which is an incredible collection of cars. Everything from early 1900’s through the 1970’s was covered, and there was no shortage of high dollar hardware inside those walls. Outside, a great crowd of people welcomed the racers to town. People lined the streets of Norwich to welcome the racers, and send them off shortly after. From there, we rallied through the countryside, and experienced some pretty tough hills in the process. The farmland continued until we reached the end of our timed course, and then we jumped on the highway to blast over to Troy, New York for our evening stop. Led off by a rain shower, the event still had great attendance, and another round of rain came in with about 15 cars left to cross the finish line. Many people braved the rain, and stuck around to see the amazing display of vintage cars. Today’s course was no easy task, but last year’s Grand Champions, Jody Knowles and Beth Gentry, proved that they are in contention for the win by knocking out an awesome score. They actually tied with Jeff and Eric Fredette’s score of 6 seconds, but the Knowles/Gentry Ford is one year older than Fredette’s truck, giving it an “age factor” advantage in our scoring handicap system. The one year difference was enough to claim the daily win. Tomorrow, we cross over into Vermont, stopping in Bennington for lunch and Burlington for the evening stop. We’re sure the scenery will be beautiful, and we’ll do our best to find some great spots for photos. Take a look at today’s highlights and be sure to check back throughout the week!