Competitors may be driving a 1911 Velie roadster or a 1969 Porsche 911, but if they don’t have a steady foot on the gas pedal and a navigator with an eagle eye they’ll probably be out of luck.
That’s how it goes in the Great Race, a weeklong, 1,500-mile vintage-car competition that – thanks to new owner Corky Coker – will begin in Chattanooga on Saturday.
“It’s a very, very demanding mental exercise,” said assistant race director Wes Kliner. The winner is the competitor who “makes the least amount of errors going through the checkpoints and follows precisely the instructions.”
That’s harder than it sounds. The likely 62 to 65 competitors have 220 to 250 instructions each day.
The race concludes in Bennington, Vt., home of race sponsor Hemmings Motor News.