Great Race director Jeff Stumb has just returned from a week on the road finalizing the second half of the 2014 Great Race venues with some of the greatest cities on the East Coast. One stop in particular will stand out on next years race, he said, after traveling from Virginia to Florida.
Over the years on the Great Race, we have stopped at some of the most iconic places in America, Stumb said. Most of the time, we are right in the center of downtown in places like Traverse City, Mich., or Crowley, La. But occasionally, we will have a stop at a unique place like the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, N.Y., which was one of the all-time favorite stops of the participants.
And in 2014, there will be another stop that racers will enjoy.
On Friday, June 27, the Great Race will stop at Patriots Point in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., and have dinner on the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier in the harbor overlooking downtown Charleston.
If that doesnt put a lump in your throat, nothing will, Stumb said. The original Yorktown was sunk by the Japanese at the battle of Midway in World War II. This Yorktown was built in 1943 and helped win the war. It is now a floating museum which is visited by hundreds of thousands each year.
Three nights earlier while in Norfolk, the event will have a Navy theme as well, although not directly. Norfolk is home to the naval fleet, and just across the river from the venue is the navy shipyard where an aircraft carrier was in dry dock.
Racers will also travel through the famous Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel on the way in to Norfolk for that evenings stop.
It is definitely going to be one of the most exciting routes we have ever
had on the Great Race, Stumb said.
I live near Chestertown, Maryland and was wondering where the race is planned to run between Valley Forge and Millsboro, Delaware as some friends and I would like to see it. It appears from the map that it may come down MD 213. This road is near us and is a scenic road with a high bridge over the C&D canal and a drawbridge over the Sassafras River near Galena.
Craig: You will have to come to the promoted stop in downtown Millsboro, home to our own Bob Bryan who is the mayor. We will be making so many turns on so many different roads it would be impossible to tell you what roads we will be on. And the way the Great Race works is we don’t use road names. We just tell them to take the first after a certain sign. We hope to see you in Millsboro.
In looking at the basic map of your route I am not sure if you will be travelling RT 9 between Keene NH and Brattleboro VT….. Hope that answer is a yes!!
Jeff, I could swear that in an earlier map in Hemmings classic cars mag., that the route went through Jacksonville NC, but now goes through New Bern to Clinton and on to Wilmington. Why the change?