The Great Race will make a stop in Truro along the way
A collection of rare model cars will come through Truro and make a quick stop here as part of a colourful road race next month.
Prince Street will be lined with antique cars ranging from 1972 back to the early 1920’s on Saturday, June 30, as participants of The Great Race 2018 stop for lunch on their way to Halifax.
“While they’re here, it’s kind of action packed,” said Rick Hollis of Hollis Ford, who is sponsoring the race’s stop in Truro. “They have an emcee walking around and talking with the drivers and spectators. It’s quite an upbeat situation.”
The Great Race is an annual old car, timed rally taking racers on a cross-country trip to test their sense of direction and time-keeping skills.
Started 35 years ago, the race pits teams of two — a driver and navigator — against not only other racers, but against time. Each team is penalized for every second they’re off the designated checkpoint time.
The teams, coming from all over the world, will begin pulling into Truro at noon to stop for an hour-long lunch at the Truro Farmers’ Market.
“They start the cars off one minute at a time from Moncton, so they should be arriving approximately one minute at a time,” said Hollis.
“It would take 125 minutes for everyone to get here. The first car to leave Truro would be the first to arrive, and they would be leaving at 1 p.m., with others leaving each minute afterwards. By 3:30 p.m. or so, the event will be wrapping up.”
This year’s race starts at the Pierce Arrow Museum in Buffalo, N.Y., on June 23, and will wrap up on the banks of Halifax Harbour on Canada Day.
“This is actually the first year since the race began that they’ve entered into the Maritimes,” said Hollis.
“It’s quite a unique event that may never again return to Truro, as each year they choose a different route. Last year, they raced from Florida to Michigan, and a few years before, they did the entirety of Route 66, which was quite interesting, apparently.”
Currently, there are 125 cars registered for the race, with drivers coming from Canada, the U.S., Germany, two from Japan, and, for the first time, a team from Australia will be participating.
“The cars are going to be in and out over that three hours, but they’ll be set up for public viewing during that time,” said Hollis.
“There will be some really cool and unique looking cars coming through that you wouldn’t normally see on the road.”