GNTC students to compete in The Great Race
♦ Team DeSoto will drive a 1955 DeSoto Fireflite on the 2,400mile route from New York into Canada.
Students in GNTC’s Automotive Technology program will have a once-in-a-lifetime experience when they compete in The Great Race; a rally-style race with vintage vehicles that begins in Buffalo, New York, and ends in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
The cross-country race will begin Saturday and last until July 1. The race runs approximately 2,400 miles. Each day, Georgia Northwestern Technical College’s team will stop at different checkpoints in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Two students, Adam Grogan and Nicholas Barber, will alternate as drivers while two other students, Zayne Waits and John Valle, will alternate as navigators. All four students are residents of Cedartown.
The Great Race is an endurance event run with vehicles that must be model year 1972 or older.
GNTC’s Team DeSoto will drive a 1955 DeSoto Fireflite previously restored by the Automotive Technology program.
“The 1955 DeSoto is the first generation HEMI engine,” said Grogan. “It’s a pretty rare vehicle.”
Teams are given instructions each day to get to the next check point and they are not allowed to use GPS, cell phones or computers. The race is not a speed race and the routes between checkpoints are scenic back roads.
“It’s not a race where you are trying to get to the finish line first,” said Rodney Parris, director of GNTC’s Automotive Technology program and leader of Team DeSoto. “You are trying to get to the finish line at a prescribed time.”
The only devices teams are allowed to have in the car
are a calibrated speedometer and a calibrated clock. The navigators will have to use math skills to figure out how to get to the next checkpoint as close as possible to the prescribed time they are given.
“It really takes you back to the ages of the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s when there wasn’t GPS,” said Barber. “You are
following instructions based on latitude and longitude and reading a map.”
Team DeSoto will compete in the X-Cup division of the Great Race, a special class that was created to encourage younger generations to take an interest in vintage vehicles.
“When it comes to these new cars, that don’t have any-
thing on the old ones,” said Waits. “There are no computers, all manual, and it has been awesome because there is a lot of history you learn working on these cars.”
GNTC’s participation in The Great Race was made possible by Patricia and Wayne Vick, who donated the DeSoto to GNTC’s Foundation and donated all the parts that were needed for the restoration. The Vicks are also covering all hotel expenses for GNTC students and personnel involved in the Race.
Additional sponsors of Team DeSoto include: BullSnot! Tire Mounting and Rubber Lubricant, Heritage First Bank, OTR Wheel Engineering Inc. and Snap-On Inc.
Ultimately, The Great Race will teach the students unity and teamwork, which is needed in the field of Automotive Technology.
“This school is really awesome and I love my teachers,” said Valle. “They are kind of like a family to me.”