A Change in Plans

It was a sad morning but the car still manages to look beautiful.

For those of you that have been following along on the Spirit of Stahls’ Facebook page, you may have already heard. It looks like Mary and I won’t be crossing the finish line in the 1935 Auburn after all. After experiencing a very unusual and loud metallic banging noise coming from the engine (we have a great video if I could figure out how to upload it), Mary and I thought it best to pull over off of the Expressway. After conferring with some of our Great Race pals Hal and Jeff, we determined it would be best to call the tow truck. As part of the Great Race organization, a tow truck loaded with an extra vehicle follows the last car in the rally everyday. It’s kind of a sweeper or clean up system to make sure “no racer is left behind.” Then our car was loaded up on the flatbed and we drove the car that had been on the flatbed.

This is one sight you don’t want to see when you are participating in the Great Race.

Luckily it’s a big tow truck because we also had to pick up another car that was stranded along the way. We’re pretty sure our car is not going to be able to be repaired in time to finish the race, but we’ll be tagging along to support the other two Spirit of Stahls’ teams. Dan and Brett are doing well in the 1941 Packard (our Beautiful Lady from our first race!) and now we are also able to take more pictures of Thomas Karr (CEO Stahls’ Europe) and his son Benjamin, who are driving the 1934 Ford Phaeton. We also had the opportunity to meet with Ken Chadwick of the GroupeSTAHL Sales Alliance, who brought his father out to say hello, as well as a large group of Mary’s cousins. Thank you for coming out to say hello. We are quite sad that we are no longer officially in the race but these things happen. We’re headed out for Millsboro, Delaware and then on to Portsmouth, Virginia tomorrow. Maybe we can hitch a ride in the Leslie Special (just kidding, that won’t be possible, but it sure would be  fun)! Don’t forget you can follow Brett and Dan via SPOT satellite by clicking here, or on the link on the lower left of the page under Ted’s Links. You’ll also find a link to our donation page for the Race Against Autism. Thanks again for all your support, comments and well wishes. On the bright side, at least it wasn’t raining like last year. 

It was great to have some family members come out and support us upon our arrival in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

You can glimpse the Leslie Special behind Dan in this picture.

Thomas Karr, CEO of Stahls’ Europe, with his son Benjamin. This is their second Great Race and they are really enjoying the challenge along this route.

Thanks to Hal and Jeff for at least trying to see if could be fixed.

Even though we had a really rough day, we still love each other!

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