As we wind down from our enormous awards banquet and dinner at The Henry Ford Museum, we reflect on the past 9 days, and the incredible journey we have completed. We started in Traverse City, Michigan on June 23rd, and now we are in Dearborn, Michigan after 2,300 miles of intense rallying around the Great Lakes. We made stops in Canada, as well as New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, and we have finally reached the end of our trip! But before all that we still had a great route for the final day of competition, which involved a great deal of scenic farmland before blasting into Ypsilanti, Michigan for lunch. While there, we visited the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum, which is actually the last remaining Hudson dealership in the country.

The Museum had all sorts of cool stuff in there, including a whole room full of Kaisers on one side of the building and a whole room full of Hudsons on the other side. We grabbed a bite to eat while we stopped in the historic downtown area, but just like all of our other stops, we were back on the road to find our next destination. For the final run to the finish, racers made their way into the magnificent Henry Ford compound, where we’d hold the Grand Finish ceremonies, as well as a parade through Greenfield Village, and an awards ceremony and farewell dinner later on!

With all of the excitement brewing, Corky and MotorMouth brought in all the cars, and the crowd roared with excitement when Barry and Irene Jason were announced as the Grand Champions of this year’s Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Hagerty! This husband and wife rallying duo are laser focused when it comes to being on time, and proved that they were spot on all week long. The Jason’s won Best Home Furnishing Ace Awards almost every day of competition and stayed consistent to bring home the BIRD and a check for $25,000 plus money for winning daily stages, and Ace awards. Without a doubt, the Jason’s are taking home a lot of good stuff!

Ypsilanti was a great stop!

Other class winners include Jody Knowles and Beth Gentry in the Expert class….Brian Blood and Stephen Keller in Sportsman…..Bryan and Ian Deering in Rookie…Chad Nelson and Brandon Schindler in X-Cup! We’ll make a separate post in the coming days about all of the awards given at the banquet, and we’ll also have an announcement about next year’s Great Race….stay tuned!!!