Car museum to host Great Race lunch stop
NORWICH – The Northeast Classic Car Museum announced plans on Tuesday for the 2018 Hemmings Motor News Great Race, which will make a lunch stop at the car museum on Sunday, June 24.
Northeast Classic Car Museum Executive Director Robert Jeffrey introduced four Great Race participants at the event – both past participants and present – who answered questions about the renowned antique car rally.
Jeffrey said, “The Northeast Classic Car Museum is honored and excited to be hosting a lunch stop for the 2018 Hemmings Motor News Great Race.” The last time the Great Race ventured through Norwich was in 2000, when the race made a 15-minute pit-stop in the city, according to Jeffrey.
Jeffrey said participants in the Great Race and its surrounding entourage will roll into Norwich around 12:15 on June 24, and will remain for one hour before once again hitting the road. Before the racers arrive, a ceremony will commence at the museum at noon. The public is invited to attend and see the antique cars in the race, most of which were built before World War II.
Past Great Race participant Elliott Reitz provided insight as to what being in the Great Race is like. “Being in the Great Race is like nothing else you could ever do...It’s like belonging to a traveling circus. That’s about what it’s like. You never quite get your feet on the ground, or quite remember everywhere you’ve been, but the sights and the scenes and the things that happen to you are lifetime memories.”
The 2018 Great Race will start in Buffalo and span 2,300 miles across four states and two Canadian provinces to Nova Scotia. Reitz and other participants on the panel Tuesday, Frank Whitney, Jim Feeney, and Steve Tourje, talked about the challenges of excelling in the race, which is not a speed race, but rather a contest of precision of time, speed, and distance.
“The Great Race, to me and most people, is the hardest you’ll ever have to work at having fun in a car,” said Whitney. “It is hard work, and a lot of things happen. You really have to concentrate hard. If you are more than three-seconds or so off per [race leg], you’re probably not going to win. So you have to concentrate like you’ve never concentrated before.”
Each car in the Great Race has a driver and a navigator. The participants on the panel said that the driver is tasked with maintaining a specific speed for a specific amount of time and distance, while the navigator is tasked with instructing the driver how fast to go and for how long in an effort to most accurately meet their goal.
In addition to striving to maintain a precise speed and time, racers have to deal with other variables in the race, like everyday traffic and vehicle malfunctions. All of these variables mean that drivers and navigators have to adapt their strategies based on a number of factors, which makes succeeding in the race a difficult task.
The museum will remain open to the public the day of the event with its regular admission price of $10. Jeffrey said the museum is currently selling advance sale tickets for the day of the Great Race. Rexford Street will be closed off the day of the race, so the public is asked to park elsewhere and walk to the museum, where cars dating back as far as 1913 will be parked in the museum’s back lot off of North State Street.
Jeffrey said he hopes in addition to the Great Race entourage, thousands of locals will be drawn to Norwich for the lunch stop to view the racer’s antique cars, which come from Japan, England, Germany, Canada, and every corner of the United States.
Great Race Director Jeff Stumb said in a press release, “When the Great Race pulls into a city it becomes an instant festival. Last year we had four overnight stops with more than 10,000 spectators on our way to having 250,000 people see the Great Race during the event.”
Pictured: Great Race participants Elliott Reitz, Frank Whitney, Jim Feeney, and Steve Tourje, along with Northeast Classic Car Museum Executive Director Bob Jeffrey at the press conference on Tuesday. Pictured in the background is Whitney's 1914 Overland Racer used in the Great Race. (Grady Thompson photo)
Northeast Classic Car Museum Executive Director Robert Jeffrey introduced four Great Race participants at the event – both past participants and present – who answered questions about the renowned antique car rally.
Jeffrey said, “The Northeast Classic Car Museum is honored and excited to be hosting a lunch stop for the 2018 Hemmings Motor News Great Race.” The last time the Great Race ventured through Norwich was in 2000, when the race made a 15-minute pit-stop in the city, according to Jeffrey.
Jeffrey said participants in the Great Race and its surrounding entourage will roll into Norwich around 12:15 on June 24, and will remain for one hour before once again hitting the road. Before the racers arrive, a ceremony will commence at the museum at noon. The public is invited to attend and see the antique cars in the race, most of which were built before World War II.
Past Great Race participant Elliott Reitz provided insight as to what being in the Great Race is like. “Being in the Great Race is like nothing else you could ever do...It’s like belonging to a traveling circus. That’s about what it’s like. You never quite get your feet on the ground, or quite remember everywhere you’ve been, but the sights and the scenes and the things that happen to you are lifetime memories.”
The 2018 Great Race will start in Buffalo and span 2,300 miles across four states and two Canadian provinces to Nova Scotia. Reitz and other participants on the panel Tuesday, Frank Whitney, Jim Feeney, and Steve Tourje, talked about the challenges of excelling in the race, which is not a speed race, but rather a contest of precision of time, speed, and distance.
“The Great Race, to me and most people, is the hardest you’ll ever have to work at having fun in a car,” said Whitney. “It is hard work, and a lot of things happen. You really have to concentrate hard. If you are more than three-seconds or so off per [race leg], you’re probably not going to win. So you have to concentrate like you’ve never concentrated before.”
Each car in the Great Race has a driver and a navigator. The participants on the panel said that the driver is tasked with maintaining a specific speed for a specific amount of time and distance, while the navigator is tasked with instructing the driver how fast to go and for how long in an effort to most accurately meet their goal.
In addition to striving to maintain a precise speed and time, racers have to deal with other variables in the race, like everyday traffic and vehicle malfunctions. All of these variables mean that drivers and navigators have to adapt their strategies based on a number of factors, which makes succeeding in the race a difficult task.
The museum will remain open to the public the day of the event with its regular admission price of $10. Jeffrey said the museum is currently selling advance sale tickets for the day of the Great Race. Rexford Street will be closed off the day of the race, so the public is asked to park elsewhere and walk to the museum, where cars dating back as far as 1913 will be parked in the museum’s back lot off of North State Street.
Jeffrey said he hopes in addition to the Great Race entourage, thousands of locals will be drawn to Norwich for the lunch stop to view the racer’s antique cars, which come from Japan, England, Germany, Canada, and every corner of the United States.
Great Race Director Jeff Stumb said in a press release, “When the Great Race pulls into a city it becomes an instant festival. Last year we had four overnight stops with more than 10,000 spectators on our way to having 250,000 people see the Great Race during the event.”
Pictured: Great Race participants Elliott Reitz, Frank Whitney, Jim Feeney, and Steve Tourje, along with Northeast Classic Car Museum Executive Director Bob Jeffrey at the press conference on Tuesday. Pictured in the background is Whitney's 1914 Overland Racer used in the Great Race. (Grady Thompson photo)
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