Great Race 2025

June 24th and June 25th

We started the day in Springfield, Illinois where we welcomed the day celebrating Brad’s Birthday. There were well wishes from friends and family.

Our friend Della Smith is a student at USC. Della and her mom Ahna do the rally together. They are the only mother daughter team this year. They have done the rally together the last three years.

Della has made Birthday cards for Brad every year. The cards are all race related and we both love her artwork. The other two cards she drew are framed in our kitchen.

We drove from Springfield toward Effingham, Illinois. We drove south on interstate 55 out of Springfield and crossed Lake Springfield.

Lake Springfield is a man made reservoir that is about 4000 acres. It was built by the municipality in the 1930s and is used for power generation. There are homes on the lakes edge along with docks filled with boats. It looked super inviting.

We continued driving south and were back on the farm roads of central Illinois. The heatwave continues to follow us, and we saw something I have never seen before. We saw a small herd of cows including calves in a small pond. Even the cows needed to cool off.

While we were rallying through the heartland, the car stalled, and would not restart. Brad jumped out of the car and hot wired it to get us going again. He knew exactly what the problem was, and at the lunch break we spent the time changing our starter solenoid. (This was not exactly the day we were hoping for.)

We drove through the Arch in Effingham, and made a big U-turn and drove right back out the driveway.

The only thing I can tell you about Effingham is it is located in central Illinois and is known as “The Crossroads” of Illinois.

We spent the rest of the day heading toward Owensboro, Kentucky. We drove through Indiana’s agricultural land and saw more corn, farms and livestock. Central and Southern Illinois are quite flat. Although we have seen much of the same the last three days, it is so calming and beautiful to see all the greenery. The trees are mature and hang over the roads, and the crops are all organized rows creating a quilting effect across the land. The edges of the road are covered with orange lilies and wild flowers. Everything is blooming. Not only is it pleasing to the eye, we do not use air conditioning while we are rallying, so our windows are down, and the smell of honey suckle is everywhere.

We drove through Evansville in Eastern Indiana into Kentucky. We have visited Owensboro several times with the Great Race. They have always given us a warm welcome, and today was no different. Despite the heat there was a nice crowd bringing the cars in.

June 25th

We start every morning early with a wake up between 5:30 and 6:00am. We are ready to go by 7:30am. Today was no different, we were at the car and ready to leave by 7:45am.

When we left Owensboro we headed East toward Elizabethtown, Kentucky on a path we had traveled before. We recognized many of the landmarks and places we had been on past rallies. We don’t know the exact route, so it is important to continue to follow each instruction. We are always trying to be exact in our timing.

In Elizabethtown we stopped at Swope’s Cars of Yesteryear. Swope’s is an auto dealer in Elizabethtown and seems to own several dealerships. Attached to his Nissan dealership was his car Museum. He had about 25 cars in his museum.

They were kind enough to share the museum with us and offered sandwiches for lunch.

We never stay long at these places because we do not want to be caught in traffic and miss our restart. Some days they give us more time than others to enjoy the lunch stops.

After lunch, we continued East toward Frankfort, Kentucky. We drove through Bardstown, Kentucky. It is known for having the most distilleries in Kentucky, and hosts the Bourbon Festival. We passed several distilleries and could smell the fermentation in the air. Some of the distilleries are quite impressive, they have 5 to 10 buildings for aging the Bourbon. The buildings are about four stories high and thousands of square feet.

We arrived in Frankfort, KY in the late afternoon. Frankfort is the capital of Kentucky and a charming town. It is also famous for the bourbon Buffalo Trace.

We came into what appears to be their old town. There is a train that runs down the middle of the street and restored old buildings lined the road.

Our friends Gary and Jean Ann are from Kentucky, and they had many friends and family at the finish. We visited with their children, grandchildren, and neighbors.

After visiting, we headed to dinner for a belated Birthday celebration with our friends Roger and Esther. Every year they are so kind to remember Brad on his Birthday. We ate at a great steakhouse that was in the area where we had finished the day.

I have been remiss in thanking everyone who has helped us along the way.

First, thank you to Steve Capra and the team at McCollister’s for supporting our team. Thank you for transporting Jane around the country. We hope to make you proud.

We also are so appreciative to Allan, Brandon and Doug at Mustang Country in Lakewood, California. Jane would not be here without all the work you do.

We also appreciate you talking us through our repairs, and overnighting us parts!!!

We appreciate everyone at home keeping our word turning. Thank you for always supporting us!