The first car today started at 730 a.m. from downtown St Louis. Theresa and I were the 5th car out and determined to get a better score. Been feeling my Expert status was maybe in jeopardy of being revoked.

Curtis and Bruce were 19th to start. If you remember the way this rally thing works, each car is supposed to be exactly one minute a part. Our speedometer calibration run was interrupted by about a half hour of bumper to bumper traffic on 70 west. When we got to the construction site all the Chattanooga built Roadtec asphalt grinders were sitting there unused with only 3 guys pushing (or leaning) on a Shovel. Reminded me fondly of Tennessee. One could probably feel in just about any state!

No rain today….blazing sun! Nurse Theresa scolded….. meant to say advised… a few folks about getting some electrolytes in their system. Dehydration can be a problem. Subject of conversation is the color of pee.

Carol Gezon…the cookies are the favorite. Everyone knows where the stash is and we are quickly running out!

We had a pit stop in Mexico, Missouri. I thought one Mexico was enough but the show me state people decided they wanted one too. They were gracious hosts cheered on by our friend Curtis Jackson, an inactive Great Racer who says he will be back. Sorry Curtis, SHOW ME.

We had a police patrol motorcycle escort around the Missouri State Capitol building which was very cool especially since they were all Harleys. Oh…in case you didn’t do too well with the State Capitol game, the Capitol city is Jefferson and they hosted Lunch. It was pretty good BBQ too.

Curtis and Bruce had a flat during the Rally today. Am not sure why but I know Andrew and Curtis swapped tires around last night on the 16 Packard. Might have pinched a tube or picked up a nail.

The route today was a beautiful route with hilly curvy two lanes with lots and lots of speed change maneuvers. It was surely tough to hold speed for us drivers.

My Shafer 8 is holding up famously, and I put her through some paces today.

Our finish line today was at the Battlefield Mall in Springfield Missouri. Theresa and Corky got a 16 seconds and Bruce n Curtis got an 11 seconds I think. Today you weren’t squat unless you had single digits. Am pleased that we finally worked out of a slump hopefully!

Andrew Givens and Jerry Priesel were at the finish line to greet us with our trailer. Our tractor trailer was the hit tonight. Cold water and Gatorade (still working on clear pee) was the hit. The guys fixed several flats tonight at the trailer. This race is brutal on tires, carsand people too! We were able to leave the Parc Ferm’e (french I believe for car show with cool Great Race cars and some way Cool people that come from near and far to see the cars and drivers) at 8:30 tonight. Theresa and I must be getting old because we sure try to get to bed as fast as we can! Because tomorrow we get to ride down the road in a cool car!

Tomorrow we go to Kansas…heard it is flat there.

From the road,

Corky

Wednesday morning brought beautiful skies and the first opportunity to have a day without rain! That is big time important when you and your wife are boogying west in an open Indy car!

Our start time was later this morning so we got to sleep in. I hate it when I STILL WAKE UP AT 5 O’CLOCK! Fixed a flat for one of the racers at 7 AM…dang already sweaty!

I found out by all the tools, lights, and stuff in the trailer that Curtis Graf and Andrew Givens worked on the 16 Packard until 3 AM trying to fix an air leak on the specially built intake manifold but they fixed it.

We stopped for a pitstop in Green Castle, Indiana which is a really neat old town with a Courthouse on the square.

Lunch was in Marshall Illinois. Charlie Glick, David and Frank Kleptz came out to see us. David rode his 40 Indian. Cool piece that really should be in the Corky Coker collection David….

Obviously Curtis was probably really tired this morning after spending most of the nite workin on the car… But he and Bruce pushed themselves and the Packard to get back to 2nd place overall. Today they had to push start the car, the gas tank about fell off and the car vapor locked but despite all…they got an 11 second for the day. These boys can win this deal! They have a 32.34 for the Whole RACE! Heck, Theresa and I had that today dang it!

Theresa and I rallyed better today but still got a 33 today but we also figured out some things we was a doing wrongful like. Hopefully we will do better tomorrow.

We had time delays for two different trackhoes in the road, one tractor pulling a hay wagon and a corn picker. That corn picker was right in our way! Almost thought about driving under it! Bet the shafer woulda fit too!

We finished the day here in St Louis on a Bridge over looking the arch. It was really cool. My friend Mark Hyman has a Collector Car business and hosted us all. Great guy with some great cars for sale.

One bit of bad news just in before I sign off. One of our Great Race cars was TBoned by a local. It basically broke the car in half but the Fredettes are okay. What a blessing.

From underneath the Arch in St Louie,

Corky

A special thanks goes out to Dan Benck, a regular of the H.A.M.B. website, for showing up and taking some pictures for us! Dan contacted me on the website and took some pictures of my parents and the car in St. Loius. Thanks Dan!

The Great Race puts out their own update daily. You can check it out at their GreatRacer page.

Just so everyone knows, Hemmings Motor News has excellent coverage of the race at their own blog site Hemming’s Blog. Make sure to visit the site and check it out. It has some great pictures and some of Team Coker.

Today there are folks in 100 antique cars leaving Dublin Ohio…and every one think they MIGHT just MIGHT have a chance to win a hundred grand. You read it right 100 sows and bucks. On stage 4, if anyone gets all Ace’s…then Geico’s Geco will give them a ck for the big cheese. Huh!

Weather was cool as we headed out toward Indianapolis by way of Richmond Indiana. Looked like it was going to be good weather all day but we forgot that all those farmers and their wives in Indiana have been prayin for rain…. God loves farmers. It rained….n rained…remember from before?…. Pitchforks n hammer handles. That means a lot of rain. Theresa was a trooper in that downpour. She said “this is about the hardest she had ever seen it rain. I told her it wasn’t so hard it was just a Lot!

Bruce and Curtis pulled over for some calculations without seeing that a check point was in view which ultimately resulted in a penalty, but with the insistence of Bruce n Curtis once they realized it. I was very proud of them for their integrity!

Car 88 got a 2:36 today. We stunk. A 1 second, a 5 second, a 34 second, a 25 second, and a 2 minute. Theresa said it reminded her of that movie with Bill Murray called Ground Hog day. You know where the guy wakes up every day, and there is nothing that he can do to change the bad end result and the next day he wakes up and does it all over again.

It’s now Tues nite at 11:30 and I am though typing all this on this little crackberry [blackberry] keyboard.
We are havin a blast! Thanks to all at home in Chattanoogaville who make it possible for us to go!

From the Road,

Corky

For Cumulative Results follow this link: Cumulative Results

As of the end of the day yesterday Coker Tire Team 2 is in first place for the Great Race. Curtis and Bruce are really working that 1916 Packard hard!

We left Washington PA with our rain suits on AGAIN! Theresa and I really had our game faces on… we were ready for a good score and were willing to do what it took to get it!

Our first pit stop was kinda cool in Wheeling WV right on the River at what they call the Port Ampi Theater…easy for them to say…I had big trouble spelling it!

We went over the river on the National Road Bridge. When they told me that Thomas Jefferson built this famous National Road I wonder if I oughta be driving my cool Shafer 8 across a dang bridge that old! But then somebody told me it had been updated by John F Kennedy. Hope he didn’t ask technical help from his brother Chappequidicbridge Ted!

Had lunch in Cambridge Ohio. They fed us in the Culinary Art School…but they fed us Hot Dogs…america’s food.. I couldn’t figger out what was so culinary or Gourmet about Ohio weenies. They were proud of them though. It was great to see Carol Gezon, Bruce’s wife again. She surprised him. She brought Bruce clean laundry.

We finished the day in Dublin Ohio. There were lots of people there with many of my favorite people in the world who brought their toys out….CUSTOMERS. The crowd was hearty too because it had just rained pitchforks and hammer handles. That’s a hard rain I don’t care who you are!

Curtis and Bruce got a 25 with an ace on leg one. That’s when you pass a check point exactly on time. They also had a 1, 2, 2, 2, and the last leg was a 31. Since their car is older their age factor got them their 25.

We got a 43. We deserved probably to be put in jail because after we mistakenly took a sight seeing tour on a wrong turn we were 18 cars behind. If those Buckeye (Ohio)) Cops would have seen me pass all of those cars to get back into position, I would have had to call my District Attorney friend in Chattanooga or something! But I got back within 37 seconds! Theresa had white knuckles holdin on for sure. We got a 9 second, 1 second, an ace, a 1 second, a 4 second, and the 37. Dang it.

I was plum worn out at the end of the day so now you know the rest of the story why I am sending Mondays update at 11 PM on Tues.

From the road,

Corky Coker

This post comes from jalopyjournal.com. A blogger on that site saw Corky and Theresa tearing it up in their town.

“had the opportunity to check out most of the cars [from the Great Race] today when i took a bunch of shifter knobs to the post office. gotta say, it was pretty cool. There were quite a few flathead powered roadsters, and alot more traditional hot rods than i expected to see. the old tymee racers killed me, man. Corky Coker was one of the first to come into town in his 37 buick shafer 8, and he did it in style… chariotshop, a former lurker and recent member here saw him… sideways and smokin the tires onto main street, haulin down main in front of the court house, locked the tires up and slid to a smokin stop and calmly backed into his space, changed out four fouled plugs from creeping at 15 mph to stay on the scheduled time. i didn’t get to talk to him, but it was a cool stop. lots of interesting stuff.
if they come through your town, it’s worth seeing everything…”

This thread can be found at The H.A.M.B. As a side note, Coker Tire is in no way associated with jalopy journal or better known as the HAMB

As we left York, PA this morning, we were decked out in all the rain gear we could strap on. Bruce n Curtis were dry as a bone in the Packard with the top up. We don’t even have a top in the Shafer 8!

We had a wonderful Pit stop in Uniontown PA. Those folks get it! They had music on every corner, old cars, old buildings and lots of people! It was great!

Still more rain!

Theresa says that her instructions turned to “toilet paper” with all the rain and getting pelted in the face by rain at 50 mph isn’t all that fun but she digs it!

We rallyed thru southern PA and western MD today and saw lots of wonderful country when we could see thru the downpour!

One quick story… Theresa missed a quick side road turn we were supposed to make. She said ‘”as we passed it”. THAT WAS IT! Being the quick thinker I am, I whipped the car around thru these folks yard! Terrible ain’t I?

finished to a wonderful reception in Washington PA with a 32 seconds for Theresa n Corky Coker. We were pleased to get the number down within reason. We know what caused about 15 seconds so….

Bruce and Curtis got a 9 second day which put them in first overall! Great work boys!

Carole Gezon came in to see us all in Uniontown n Washington Pa. She makes the best peanut butter cookies!

Tomorrow is Monday and we are off to Dublin Ohio.

From the road,

Corky

It was the best of times and the worst of times. Sounds like some like some classic literature stuff. The best of times was Curtis and Bruce in the 1916 Packard with 9 seconds. Theresa and Corky Coker got a 3 something MINUTES. So you understand my best/worst thing. We left Philly with gloomy skies and they opened up on us right when we started rallying.

It was really cool driving thru all the amish country passing the horse drawn buggies every several hundred feet. We came over one hill to see about 20 buggies parked next to a baseball diamond where the amish kids were playing baseball. Was really cool.

Well… I’ll tell you what happened. We were warmin up! We missed a dang turn and could not get back into position before we hit a check point. Then… We left on the wrong minute after a transit. Both rookie mistakes. But maybe they are behind us.

Therapy time. Tomorrow we end up in Dublin, Ohio. Maybe better scores for C and T.

From the road,

Corky

This morning is our official start in Philadelphia. The venue is on a beautiful Benjamin Franklin Parkway in front of the big library bldg with all the steps. Same place Rocky Balboa runs up in the Rocky movie!

It was raining on the way down to the venue this morning. We were already asked the big question…”What do you do when it rains?”. And the answer is…we get wet!

We had a little trouble on the Trophy Run yesterday. The car bottomed out on a big bump n squashed the Speedo cable. We finished the day just guessing how fast we were going. Score didn’t count anyway so. But today…

Off we go! Update you again after we get in tonight.

From the road,

Corky Coker