We successfully completed the 2011 Great Race !!!!

Our final day was Friday and it was an intense day. We started at 6am ( which means we were up at 4am) and had 7 challenging legs for the day. There is heightened excitement on the last day which makes it even more stressful.

We were doing well until the last leg when we came up on a large truck pulled across blocking the lanes. We stopped (I was timing the stop) but noticed there was no one in the truck. The driver was up
the road and didn’t seem concerned with the situation. Gary decided
he had waited enough so he somehow drove up on a driveway and
the shoulder to get around. While he was doing this I was trying to
determine the time lost. With the confusion I wasn’t sure of ” my
numbers” but we took off knowing we were over a minute behind.
After some fast driving while I was trying to keep track of the course
we spotted the Great Race car ahead of us. We both tried to get a
“hack time” and determined that we were close to a minute behind
so we were back in position. We were doing fine then on the last
turn of the day we had local traffic stop us. Once again I tried to get
the lose time. This was so close to the check point that we couldn’t
make it up so we needed a time delay. After calculating I decided on
a 20 sec delay but wasn’t sure if I was accurate which was very
frustrating but Gary said go with my numbers so we took 20 sec.
We ended up with a 12sec late on that leg which wasn’t a good time
but considering all our problems I was happy
The finish of the event was WONDERFUL. We all staged at Hemmings
Motor News then drove into the main part of town. There was a
huge crowd lining the streets waving flags, cheering, shaking hands,
and even giving us special race flag cookies. At the finish we were
greeted by the Lt Governor of Vermont. There was a huge party in
the streets with bands, food and fun.
We finished 4th in the Expert Division which excited and surprised
us. Considering the three teams that beat us were The Sharps (1st
place), Knowles/Gentry (2nd place) & Cotheran/Hewitt(3rd
place) we were honored to be 4th

Congratulations to Doug & Howard Sharp for winning the Grand
Championship for the event. Also congrats to all the Great Racers
because all are winners!!! To finish is to win!!!

After a tiring week it was nice to not have to rush this morning but it was sad to leave our Great Race family. With lots of hugs and smiles we all departed

Thanks to all those who made this event possible It was a memorable adventure! We are looking forward to the 2012 Great Race!!!