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Great Race to make pit stop in Fairport
Great Race to make pit stop in Fairport
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The Village of Fairport on June 23 will play host to the Great Race, the world’s premier old car rally, as 120 antique automobiles roll into town for the $150,000 event.
Two area teams will be competing in the annual event, in which participants cover more than 2,300 miles in nine days, driving from Buffalo to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Fairport racers include the father and son team of Howard and Douglas Sharp, who won the race in 2011 and 2015. The duo will drive a 1916 Hudson Hill Climber.
A second team from Fairport includes Lex Sleeman and David Coon, who have raced together for more than five years. They will compete with a 1953 Chevrolet two-door Businessman’s Coupe.
“When the Great Race pulls into a city it becomes an instant festival,” race director Jeff Stumb said in a news release. “Last year we had four overnight stops with more than 10,000 spectators, on our way to having 250,000 people see the Great Race during the event.”
The event was started in 1983 and takes its name from the 1965 movie “The Great Race,” starring Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. The comedy was based on a real-life 1908 auto race from New York to Paris.
The Great Race is not a speed event, but rather a time/speed/distance rally. The vehicles, each with a driver and a navigator, are given precise instructions each day that detail every move down to the second. They are scored at secret checkpoints along the way and are penalized one second for each second they are early or late. The lowest score wins.
In addition to the Great Race stop in Fairport, the village will hold a local car show with 500 vintage, classic and muscle cars. Main Street will close to through traffic from 1 to 9 p.m. for the event.
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Follow Velvet Spicer on Twitter: @Velvet_Spicer
