Welcome / Introduction

Hello everyone!  Welcome to the 2025 Throttle Car Club Great Race Blog.   The purpose of this blog is to provide a centralized public location for all things related to our adventures in competing in the upcoming 2025 Great Race.  Here, you will be able to learn about this unique rally race, what it takes to enter and prepare for the race as well as follow along with our daily progress. You can  even make comments and share the blog with anyone.   For those that are new to this, the Great Race is a organized vintage car rally race that has been going on for over 44 years.  Each year over 150, 2-person teams compete with driving @2500 miles cross country over 9 days.  The newest car allowed is a 1975, with a great variety of cars, many which are pre-WW1 open cockpit race cars.  Each year has a different starting and ending location.  For 2025, the race starts in St. Paul, MN on June 21st with the finish line ending in Lake Murray SC on June 29th.   

The format for the race is what makes this unique and challenging.  This is not a race based on speed but rather based on accuracy for time of arrival.   Each team is provided a start time, with each team leaving 1 minute apart.  The goal is to arrive exactly or as close as possible to a pre-determined arrival time later in the day.  The catch?  You must do this without any maps, GPS or phones and your odometer is blacked out so you cannot measure any distance.   The only thing you can you use is measuring time and speed through a set of turn by turn directions that are only given to you 30 minutes before you leave!  These directions tell you which way to go and how fast to drive with each maneuver. Each day is comprised of between 2-7 “legs” through hidden checkpoints.   Oh, and by the way, the course is all on back country roads navigating through normal public traffic.   

The Goal? To arrive within seconds of your pre-determined time.  To some this seems impossible, but with the use of a special speedometer and a stop watch and turn by turn directions, its possible. In fact, the winning teams usually finish within single digit seconds of their pre-set times.   If you arrive too early or too late, you accumulate points with each second being 1 point.  The teams with the lowest points win.  The race purse of prize money is well over $160,000 with over 4 different divisions.   Last year, team Throttle was comprised of Jamie Nonni as driver and Kevin Gross as navigator driving a 1958 Alfa Romeo Guiletta Veloce Sprint in the “rookie division”, which had about 30 teams. To our surprise, we came in 4th place!   

This year, we have 2 teams with Jamie & Kevin driving again a different car, a freshly restored 1960 Alfa Romeo Guiletta Veloce Sprint Clone, competing in the Sport division.  To add to the madness, this car was only finished days before the start of the race with only 200 miles driven.  For this race, finishing is winning :)  The other team is comprised of Scott Pitcock as driver and Dwayne Hopkins as navigator, driving the same 58’ Alfa from last year.  They will be competing in the rookie class. We hope the car brings them the same good luck it brought us! 

The overall experience of competing in this race is first class. Each time we arrive at a new location for lunch or dinner we are greeted with hundreds of people lining the streets to see the cars and welcoming us to their town or city.    The race manages to squeeze in a few cool events as well throughout the journey.   It’s definitely an experience like no other,  seeing the country from a less common point of view while meeting great people along the way. 

How will we do?  Will these cars make it to the finish line?  Stay tuned right here. We’ll post updates daily including some video and pictures. 

Also, we want to thank our sponsors as attending this year’s race would not have been possible without their contributions;  Keith Knowlton(TCC member), Linda Lamontagne (TCC member), Peter Michaud(TCC member), Norman Hopkins, Craig Foster, Napa Auto Parts of Maine, Tires In Motion, S.I. Automotive,  House of Kolor, True Comfort Heating & Cooling, The Bays Insurance Group, Mougalian Rugs, South Portland Food Cupboard and Don Foshays Discount Tire.

If you like learn more about the Great Race, visit www.greatrace.com.   Enjoy the blog!