Driver Olivia Gentry, age 20, and navigator Genna Gentry, 18, just won $50,000 for finishing first in a classic car rally called The Great Race in this ancient three-speed V8 Ford.
Car: 1932 Ford Five-Window Coupe
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Photog: “The Great Race”
Camera: Nikon D7200, 18-200 mm lens
The Great Race, as explained by event organizers, is setup like this:
“The competition is a time-distance rally that pits teams from around the world against each other and the clock in classic cars as they attempt to make perfect time on each cross country leg without the assistance of modern electronics or navigation aids of any kind — all they get are a map, stopwatches and old fashioned reckoning.”
In other words, it’s not a race of flat-out speed but rather, vehicles have to follow a specific route while maintaining prescribed average speeds. The Gentry sisters, running a 1932 Ford Five-Window Coupe on old-school BFG Silvertown whitewalls produced by Coker Tire, are now the youngest people to ever win it. Apparently, this was their fourth year in the race, so obviously there are at least some young people who are still amused by archaic automobiles. Good!
The 2021 Hemmings Motor News Great Race Presented By Hagerty Driver’s Club (the official names of races are always comically long, got to get those sponsor shout-outs) ran over nine days, through eight states, and measured about 2,300 miles. The route took competitors from San Antonio, Texas to Greenville, South Carolina via Oklahoma, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, regular Virginia, and North Carolina.
Sounds like an amazing event, though. Who doesn’t love an excuse to spend a week and a half puttering across America in an old car?
