It was an early start to the day following a full program of racing last evening at Capital City Speedway away back in Ottawa, Ontario. With that said, I didn’t require the alarm to be up at 4:00 this morning to head to the airport! Two flights earlier today, took me from Ottawa to Chicago and from Chicago to Minneapolis. Everything was like clockwork…from airport to pick up of a vehicle rental; MotorMouth gets to experience a Subaru Outback this year.
Arriving at the parking lot of the Minneapolis Airport Marriott was awesome! To see almost 100 vehicles either ‘stickered’ up or getting ‘stickered’ was a tremendous sight. The rush of lime-shirted volunteers was what hit me also. There was just so much friendship and help being shared around to get every vehicle through technical inspection and readied for the event. From preparation to the first reception to the mandatory staff meeting, my day has been spent renewing acquaintances, meeting new rally teams, checking out a myriad of different cars and trucks and developing the story-lines that will be built in to telling the story of the Great Race 2013. The variety of  entrants this year is amazing, from  the 1915, 1916, 1917 brass era right through to 1969 and everything in between; Hudson, Ford, Bentley, Studebaker, Austin Healey, to Morris Minor to name but a few! While the teams head out to Rally School at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds and compete in the Hagerty Trophy Run tomorrow, I will be reviewing team information and vehicle data getting ready for the official start on Saturday, when I have the pleasure of introducing each and every team as they start this epic journey. Pitter patter…let’s get at ‘er!