Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 6, 1995 TAG: 9507060056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LEXINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Philip Thomas and Michael Corless have been on the road together for five days now, testing their wills, their endurance and their precision in a '37 Hudson Terraplane Victoria.
The going has been tough in the Great North American Race, but they've survived with their nerves intact.
"We haven't even attacked each other with screwdrivers yet," Thomas said.
Well, there's that much to be thankful for.
Joking. He was joking, of course.
The driving team from New Mexico has had more than its share of frustrating mechanical breakdowns - and emergency parts replacements - since they left Ottawa on their way to Mexico City.
"We had to buy a whole car last week to keep this thing on the road," Thomas said, waving toward the lemon-cream Hudson parked beside the parade grounds at Virginia Military Institute during a brief stopover Wednesday morning.
"It's been wild," Corless said. "That's the trouble with driving an almost 60-year-old car."
Despite the problems, they've kept their sense of humor. Corless explained the Hudson's climate-control system to an admirer: "We call it Two-Sixty Air Conditioning. You open those two vents back there, and you go 60 miles an hour."
More than 100 cars built from 1911 through 1941 motored into Lexington on Wednesday, finishing a leg of the two-week race. Dozens of people showed up to ogle the beautiful old cars and get autographs from the drivers and navigators.
The Great Race is an endurance rally that calls for precision rather than speed. Each day, the teams are given detailed driving instructions and specific arrival times for each of the day's four legs. They're penalized for every second they arrive early or late. The rally, which is sponsored by Interstate Batteries, offers more than $250,000 in prize money.
The annual race began in 1983. It's inspiration was a 1908 'round-the-world auto race that was in turn the inspiration for a 1965 movie, "The Great Race," starring Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.
Rex Gardner, who is driving a '35 Ford three-window coupe, has competed in the race nine times. Gardner, of Kansas City, Kan., says he's in it for one reason: "To win. We've been second twice, third, fourth, fifth. ... We just keep bouncing around."
It's grueling. He and his navigator usually get up at 5:30 a.m., and often don't get to sleep until midnight.
"After the fourth or fifth day, something sets in that we call 'Brain Fade.' You start making stupid mistakes."
Gardner climbed into his Ford. "Got to go, my friend," he said. He cranked up and drove off.
Rudy Concepcion Jr. of Oxon Hill, Md., is taking his first long driving trip of North America. He's navigating the '38 Studebaker Commander that his dad, Rudy Sr., bought two months ago and fixed up for the race.
Rudy Jr. just graduated from Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and will start working as a stockbroker in August.
"It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing," Rudy Sr. said. "It's just some sort of reward before he gets a real job."
Another father-son team, Jeff and Gary Cromeens of Mesquite, Texas, wore long, white "dusters" - which look like oversize lab coats - along with white slacks and white athletic shoes. The driver wears a black leather helmet. The passenger wears a white English motoring cap.
They're driving a replica of a 1925 Durant Speedster. Only one was built at the time. The Cromeens built the second, using two four-cylinder engines.
The father, Jeff, was 3 years old when the original Durant Speedster was built at a factory in Oakland, Calif.
When he was asked whether the bullet-shaped car had a top, the son, Gary, replied, "No top. That's probably the most commonly asked question."
What do they do when it rains?
"Same thing you do when you take a shower," he said. "You get wet."
by CNB