Rally ho! Great Race classic car rally launches from Warwick

Mark Reynolds, The Providence Journal
·4 min read

WARWICK — To the cheer of massive crowds, the drivers of a legendary long-distance driving competition set out for the Midwest late Saturday morning.

They rolled their 130 classic cars out of Rocky Point State Park on a mostly secret 2,300-mile course that leads from the shores of Narragansett Bay all the way to Fargo, North Dakota.

The Great Race, which is not actually a race, is a 39-year-old rally event that challenges drivers to complete an epic course with precise timing and navigation.

The event drew thousands of spectators to Rocky Point and to vantage points along the ceremonial kickoff course on local roads.

More: Classic cars from US, Japan, England, Australia, Canada race from Warwick to North Dakota

What's at stake for the Great Race winner?

The rally is named after the 1965 movie starring Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Natalie Wood and Peter Falk. The competitors are vying for prizes that include a $50,000 purse for first place.

Prior to Saturday's kickoff, The Great Race had never visited Rhode Island. North Dakota is now the only state in the continental U.S. not visited by car enthusiasts.

With a north breeze keeping the temperature comfortable, a long line of classic cars waited Saturday morning for the start of the journey.

The cars and their drivers were at rest on the paved path that traces the rocky fringes of the bayside park.

Curtis Graf, who has participated in every Great Race rally since 1983, was parked toward the front.

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Not far behind Graf was a rookie first-time participant from Smithfield, Tom Laferriere, who drives a 1939 Packard, Model 120.

His navigator, 57-year-old, A.J. SanClemente, of Northborough, Massachusetts, was already in the passenger seat and ready to roll.

"I don't care what place I come in, I just want to make it," said the 55-year-old, who makes a living buying, selling, trading and servicing vintage cars.

Last year's Great Race winners, sisters Jenna Gentry, left, the navigator, and Olivia Gentry, the driver, get a hug before the race from their father, Oliver Gentry. They all live in Newnan Georgia. The women were driving a 1932 Ford Coupe.
Last year's Great Race winners, sisters Jenna Gentry, left, the navigator, and Olivia Gentry, the driver, get a hug before the race from their father, Oliver Gentry. They all live in Newnan Georgia. The women were driving a 1932 Ford Coupe.

Laferriere's father purchased the Packard in 1970, which Laferriere restored in 1988. He said he has wanted to compete in the race for 40 years.

When he heard the race would start in Rhode Island, he couldn't delay any longer.

"I said, 'I have to do this race,'" said the Smithfield resident.

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The race has started in both Connecticut and Massachusetts in the past, and it has finished in Massachusetts, according to Graf.

"But we never got to Rhode Island," said Graf, 77, of Irving, Texas.

He stood next to a 1932 Ford Roadster.

Graf said he enjoys the camaraderie and the opportunity to help other competitors complete the course.

Richard Schneider, of St. Louis, Mo., adjusts the radio control that he uses to talk to his wife, the navigator, when they are driving in their open-air Riley 2937.
Richard Schneider, of St. Louis, Mo., adjusts the radio control that he uses to talk to his wife, the navigator, when they are driving in their open-air Riley 2937.

Ed Chapman, 67, of Auburn, Maine, runs a 1948 Ford sedan.

To compete, he said, he had to upgrade the radiator and attend to various other components.

Planning for the unexpected on the long trek

All of this is part of the drama for a contest that involves old cars.

Getting vintage cars to travel long distances, reliably, isn't "always easy," said Chapman. "The tolerances and things like that are a little different in an old car."

The oldest cars in the lineup at Rocky Point on Saturday were a pair of 1916 Hudsons, according to the race guide.

More than 50 vehicles built before World War II signed up for the competition, and all other cars were built before 1975, says the guide.

While the drivers and navigators aren't racing, things can happen when old vehicles are subjected to endurance tests.

In 2018, for example, the race summited Mount Washington during the New Hampshire leg of its trek from Buffalo, New York, to Halifax, Nova Scotia, said the race's director, Jeff Stumb.

On the way down the Mount Washington Auto Road, some elderly men lost the brakes on their 1955 Buick station wagon, said Stumb.

"I mean they were barreling down," said Stumb.

A racer saw what was happening and put his car in front of the Buick and stopped them "from going over a cliff," Stumb said.

Brad Epple, 67, of Jefferson City, Missouri, who owns a banking software company, has participated in the Great Race for 10 years.

Epple is in the race's expert class. His team runs a 1964 Falcon Sprint convertible with a V-8 engine.

A careful strategy for time management

He is a careful tactician capable of teaching a seminar on strategies for completing the course within the time constraints.

He said he and his son drive the Falcon 5 mph below the speed limit to create a cushion for error if their navigation calculations should move them along too quickly.

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee figures the racers will meet lots of people as they cross the country over the next nine days.

He asked them to tell everyone they encounter where their adventure started.

Stumb said he expects a massive crowd in Fargo at the finish.

Then they rolled out of Rocky Point one at a time.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Great Race car rally launches from Warwick, bound for North Dakota