Cape Girardeau, Missouri won the Best Overnight City Award on the 2013 Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Hagerty for its overwhelming spirit and hospitality, race officials have announced. Cape Girardeau hosted a stop on Main Street on Tuesday, June 25, and more than 5,000 spectators attended. It was the first time in the 30-year history of the Great Race that the event had been to Cape Girardeau.

“All of the overnight stops were fantastic,” race director Jeff Stumb said. “But Cape Girardeau was one of those stops that will be talked about for years to come by the participants. The hospitality shown to the racers by the huge crowd downtown was tremendous, but the most comments I got were how impressed everyone was with the spectators lining Broadway Street for miles all the way to Main Street.” Along with the Great Race participants, nearly 200 cars participated in a local car show along the riverfront, capping off the experience.

The overnight stops in Davenport, Iowa; Hannibal, Missouri; Germantown, Tennessee; Covington, Louisiana; and Mobile, Alabama; were also among the racers’ favorites. “And we will never forget the start in St. Paul where literally tens of thousands of people cheered the racers on as they began their trek,” Stumb said.

The Great Race started in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Saturday, June 22, with 99 automobiles – everything from a 1913 Premier to a 1969 Camaro – and ended 2,100 miles and nine days later in Mobile, Alabama. The route followed the Mississippi River for most of the way, and contestants crossed it 12 times in all.

Barry and Irene Jason of Keller, Texas, won $50,000 of the $150,000 total purse for winning the race in their 1935 Ford Coupe.

The 2014 Great Race route and dates have been announced, and it will start June 21 in Maine and end June 29 in Florida. For more information, go to www.greatrace.com or contact Jeff Stumb at 423-648-8542 or [email protected] .