The Gilmore Car Museum is giving some high school students and recent graduates an even more unique opportunity than unique opportunity they already had.
The group from among the students who get to learn about and work on class cars as part of the High School Garage Works program at the museum will be one of just seven under 21 teams to run the Great Race.
The race is a controlled-speed endurance rally for antique, vintage and collector cars.
The car museum’s entry will be a 1935 Packard which was donated in 2006 by Bea Dinger, then of Holland now of Jenison.
The museum’s marketing director, Jay Follis, said the museum staff had gotten the idea after being approached by the Great Race about being one of the 17 stops along the way.
“We wanted to give these students an opportunity to experience something unique like this which they otherwise probably wouldn’t ever get to be a part of,” Follis said.
The team of five young people—which includes Otsego graduate Jakob Taylor—and their five adult support team will start in Jacksonville, Fla. and end in Traverse City. They will run from Auburn, Ind. to the museum in Hickory Corners in one leg, arriving June 29. The museum plans a free admission that day.
From there the route heads east to Ypisilanti before heading north by way of Chesterfield, Frankenmuth and Alpena to Sault Ste. Marie before backtracking across the Mackinaw Bridge and ending up in Traverse City. The race isn’t about speed, indeed cars are restricted to 5 miles per hour below the posted speed limit and takes place entirely on two lane roads, including much of the historic Dixie Highway.
Each day, a different team of adult driver and teen navigator will have to follow precisely a set of written instructions.
“It will be things like, go to the stop sign and wait 47 seconds, then turn left and drive to the red bard,” Follis said.
Every second early or late from the perfect time will be a penalty point.
Follis said the teens will have to learn both to precisely follow the directions and to be able to retrace their steps and get back on time and one course if they make an error. Needless to say, no GPS or smart phones are allowed for navigating.
The team will also need to correct any mechanical problems that crop up within a certain time limit before they are advanced to the next checkpoint with a penalty.
They’ve been on training for the race on roads near the museum, with running out of gas already having happened, along with other trouble shooting the students had to do on the fly.
Taylor said he’s looking forward to the experience.
“I’m expecting to have fun,” he said. “I think we’ll meet some cool people and make some friends down there.
“I’ve been looking forward since I found out I was going on it, I’m very excited.”
The whole program has been a great thing for Taylor to find, he said.
“I started by going out there with my buddy on a whim,” he said. “When I saw all the old cars out there, I sort of found a niche. I’ve always been a mechanical kid but I hadn’t found any place to do that and there it was.”
Taylor said he’d started on his way by taking apart his RC cars at a very young age.
“It was probably from seven on up,” he said. “When I was just old enough to reach up and grab from my dad’s toolbox.”
Working on old cars brings its own challenges, he said.
“It’s trying to get the cars like the original state as close as possible,” Taylor said. “There’s no manual for 1909 Buick and there’s no parts, so it’s by word of mouth or pictures. We looked at a 1908 and used that as a reference.”
The Buick was displayed in May during the museum’s pre-1942 showcase.
On the Great Race, Taylor said he was looking forward to visiting the Corvette factory, but mainly Sault Ste. Marie so he could see some of his Upper Peninsula family.
The group will fly down a day or two early and visit Disney World before heading to Jacksonville to start the race.
Follis said anonymous donors had paid for the student team to be entered into the race and for the costs associated with running it.
Along with Taylor, the teams consist of students and recent graduates: Madison Gremore of Schoolcraft, Coleman Rodriquez of Comstock, Jacob Onderlinde of Comstock and Gavin O’Dell of Delton.
The adults include: Brad Wire of Shelbyville, Mike Onderlinde of Comstock, Bob Johnson of Hastings, Fred Colgren of Cooper Township and Brittany Williams of Kalamazoo.
The Gilmore car includes a number of identifying stickers, including a “Gilmore Was Here” cartoon on the back, adapted from the World War II-vintage “Kilroy Was Here.”
Contact Dan Pepper at dpepper@allegannews.com or at (269) 673-5534
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