A team of Alfred State automotive students will compete in classic car competition “The Great Race.” The race begins on June 22 in Owensboro, KY and ends on June 30 in Gardiner, ME.
“The Great Race” is an antique, vintage, and collector car competitive controlled-speed endurance road rally on public highways featuring cars with model years before 1974. It is a test of driver/navigator team’s ability to follow precise course instructions and the cars and team’s ability to endure on a cross-country trip.
Led by Motorsports lecturer and Great Race alum Caryl Koch a team of five students, Spencer Caccamise (Lima, NY), Tanyon Dunning (Penn Yan, NY), Garrett Maul (East Concord, NY), Connor Merkle (Corning, NY), and Carter Polhamus (Cazenovia, NY), will travel the route in a 1953 Dodge Power Wagon tow truck.
Koch participated in the race right after he graduated from Alfred State. He was part of a team that traveled 8,000 miles in eighteen days. His adventure included round-trip travel to the west coast as the race started in Southern California and ended in Tacoma, Washington. His race experience included driving through the Redwood Forest, visiting Crater Lake, and a visit to the LeMay Car Museum.
“The plan for this year is to finish. We have been out of the race for a while, and everybody wants to see the Power Wagon back in the race. The Power Wagon gets so much attention. We hope to move from Kentucky to Maine with minimal problems. The students this year focused on getting the truck back together. We really built it to make it reliable. It has to drive 2,300 miles all the way up the east coast.”
Caccamise was excited to be part of getting the Power Wagon back on the road. “I grew up working on carbureted points and condenser control vehicles and I had the opportunity to take lead on getting this vehicle back on the road. It is going to be exciting to see all the good work put in to use. I am looking forward to seeing what worked and what didn't while exploring a couple states.”
Koch looks forward to leading the team. “I am excited to be able to really work with my students at the race and figure out how to keep these cars racing. These students came to school to learn how to fix cars and what better way to do it than racing an old car up the east coast.”
The race will travel from Kentucky to Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine. The closest the team will come to Alfred State is a lunch stop in Binghamton on Wednesday, June 26. For more information on the course or the event visit: www.greatrace.com.
The team continues to raise funds for the trip.
