Great Race Day 1 St. Augustine Florida to Tifton, Georgia

Today, Saturday, June 24th, 2023 we started our 8th Great Race in St. Augustine, Florida. We started early at the resort at the World Golf Hall of Fame. The 127 cars caravanned down through old town St. Augustine to Francis Field. The field was full of locals and race teams anxiously awaiting the official start.

There is always pomp and circumstance the first day including a prayer for the participants and singing of the national anthem.

We were fortunate to have a beautiful morning with a nice breeze at the start. We visited with spectators and friends, and enjoyed the morning.

Curtis Graff is a friend and participant in the Great Race. He has participated in every Great Race since 1984. He is a great driver and competitor. Robert Dinges in the photo above is his navigator. Curtis has won the rally several times in the past. He is not only a fierce competitor, but a friend to everyone on the rally.

Esther and her husband Roger Shacket have participated over the past 15 years. They competed for many years, but now are the only team who are in the touring class. They drive their 1957 Chevy Bel Air, and are very much a part of the rally, but no longer compete.

Each day we calibrate our speedometers. We do this by driving a set speed and running a stopwatch as we drive. We are given certain signs and times to be at each point. After running about 25 miles we figure out how much to adjust our speedometers.

Today, we hit traffic as we started our calibration run. We were unable to do a portion of it, but were fortunate to have traffic lighten up, and still have enough data to calibrate the speedometer. This is important in keeping time on long stretches of driving at higher speeds. If you are not calibrated correctly, you can gain or lose time over long periods of driving.

We drove for miles today at 45 and 50 miles per hour. We were flanked by groves of pine trees and other thick forested areas. The roads were straight and you could see for miles. Horse farms, cattle ranches and other agricultural farms were also on the terrain we covered.

When we finished the day we were in Tifton, Georgia. A small agricultural town of about 17,000 people in the southern central part of the state. We were here six years ago, and they greeted us with the same enthusiasm. They had a live band and a delicious dinner of Chicken, pork chops. We also indulged in a little birthday cake.

We are so grateful to Susan Stone who has given Brad a Birthday cake every year. We love celebrating with Sawyer and your entire family!

Sawyer, Happy 30th Birthday! Twenty one years of celebrating your birthday on the Great Race is an incredible accomplishment. We hope to celebrate many more with you.

Thank you again to our sponsors McCollister’s. Not only do they deliver our cars safely, but they have a sweeper truck for those of us who are not so lucky. Billy and Ronnie run at the end of the race daily, and will pick up any car that has an issue.

We also want to thank Mustang Country, Jane had another great day and so did we!