It took Charles Harris, of Damariscotta, several days to recover from the mental and physical challenges posed by a recent nine-day road race called the Hemmings Motor News Great Race. The race is always grueling, but this year the daily temperatures of over 100 degrees took a toll on Harris, navigator Phillip Reinhardt, and Harris’ 1931 Reo Royale.
In the mountains at high elevation approaching Colorado Springs, with a close finish expected, the Reo’s original 1931 radiator could not stand the extreme heat and Harris was forced to shut down the car for stretches to let it cool. Sitting in his idle car covered in super heated coolant that regularly spewed from the radiator, Harris’ championship dream went up in smoke.
Despite that, his team placed 11th in his division out of more than 60 competitors.
Harris says that being so close to victory inspires him even more for next year’s Great Race, which will start in Kentucky and end in Gardiner, Maine. This year the Hemmings Motor News Great Race spanned 2,300 miles from St. Augustine, Fla. to Colorado Springs, Col.
Unlike the stock car racing that Harris has done previously in his racing career, the Great Race is a time-speed-distance rally, featuring antique and classic cars like his 1931 Reo. The first Great Race was in 1983. This year there were over 120 participants competing for more than $150,000 in cash prizes.
Great Race competitors follow a booklet of printed instructions which tell the driver and navigator how fast to go and each turn to take. The race director works months in advance to lay out the course and determine the maneuvers and speed changes that competitors try to match perfectly for nine grueling days.
The racers get the instructions each day only 30 minutes before their scheduled departure. Every day there are hidden checkpoints that measure the exact time the team passes through the gate and closest to the predetermined time. Racers accumulate points that add up toward the championship.
The precision is impressive, as the winners of each day are often off by just a matter of seconds from the prescribed time. Harris was able to rack up a lot of points early in the race, before the heat and radiator became insurmountable hurdles.
“There are six hidden checkpoints each day and they’re on the side of the road with a stopwatch and there’s a computer time you’re trying to match,” Harris said. “After hours of racing and staying on course, if you’re zero seconds off you get an ace sticker,” said Harris. “There are teams that have been racing for decades that have never gotten an ace, and we earned seven this trip,”
When asked what he loves most about road rallies, Charles was quick to note “the competition, the all-consuming focus it requires, and the teamwork necessary between himself, his navigator and his other teammate — the car.
According to Harris, road rallies are more stressful than racing late model stock cars at Wiscasset Speedway, a sport he is still passionate about and partakes in occasionally.
“The Great Race is more of a chess game than racing stock cars, and the level of accuracy that you have to achieve is mind blowing,” he said. “You always have to pay attention and have your A game.”
According to Harris, every turn and every stop matters toward success.
“Let’s say you’re coming in at 50 miles an hour up to a stop sign, and then leaving at 45,” he said. “The computer assumes the car can go 50 to zero instantaneously, and then zero to 45 instantaneously. So every time throughout the day you come to a stop sign or turn, the navigator has to calculate from charts that you’ve made our deceleration loss of time, our acceleration loss of time for the maneuver, add them together and calculate how much faster you have to run than you’re supposed to be running to get that time back.
All you’re allowed is a speedometer and a stopwatch: no calculators, no phone and no GPS. You get vague clues to find the course — they won’t even give you street names a lot of times, so you get route numbers and sometimes not even that. The instructions just say take your fourth right.”
When Harris was asked if it is hard to focus on driving and not crashing with all that other math and calculation going on? He said, “We didn’t crash but there were multiple vehicles that have gotten involved in fender benders,” he said. “One of the leaders of this race was taken out with two days to go.”
When on the road there isn’t much time for small talk, Harris said. Conversation is usually limited to Reinhardt telling Harris what he needed to know to stay on course and on time.
“We don’t say oh, look at that cool mountain, or look at the lake, or engage in much small talk,” Harris said. “You don’t have time, I don’t really even see where we are because I’m looking at the road and the speedometer and keeping it on the dots. One year we raced through the scenic redwood forest in California and never really saw it.”
Typically, race days are long and there is not much time for relaxation after a long hot day on the road.
“By the time we get into the town at night, you’re required to go to the event party and you have to stay there till eight o’clock,” Harris said. “By the time you get to the hotel, it’s usually nine and you start working on the car, so it’s usually 11 o’clock to bed and then you get up at 5:30 and do it all again.”
Harris’s race car is a 1931 Reo Royale and the whole vehicle is original. It’s exactly like one that was built to race in the 1931 Indianapolis 500.
“Reo did that to demonstrate the reliability of their vehicles, to put a street vehicle in a race” said Harris. “Everyone in the racing world told them they’d never be able to finish, and they qualified at 106.7 miles an hour and finished ninth in the race.”
Harris is a lover of antiques including old cars. His hobby turned into a passion, and he owns and operates Indian Trail Antiques in Newcastle. The business is like a museum in a 15,000 square foot 1800’s barn with four floors packed full of quality antiques including racing memorabilia and signage.
A proud moment for Harris and Reinhardt was winning the one day rally in Florida that is a warm-up race called the Trophy Run. If there’s a tie in the nine-day rally, the Trophy Run determines the grand champion.
“We won first place in the Trophy Run, and we were essentially tied with the leaders in the Great Race until the seal on the gasket of the radiator melted and blew 200 degree coolant in my face twice,” said Harris.
“We got a nasty hole in the radiator that we had to repair,” explained Harris. “One night it was like we had to take the whole engine apart.”
Harris said he was thankful to have Reinhardt as navigator and mechanic. Reinhardt owns Mechanical Arts Vintage Auto Specialists in St. George, Maine and his know-how got the car ready before the race, and saved the day on many occasions during the rally.
Phil added three carburetors for this race instead of one from last year, and the car ran like a top,” said Harris. “The Reo just couldn’t handle 115 degree day temperatures for long periods. We ended up pulling over a couple times so we wouldn’t blow the engine. Once the car got to 250 degrees, the floorboards were probably over 200 degrees, so everything was so hot.”
According to Harris, the best thing about the race this year was having his parents, John and Koko Harris, waiting to greet him at the finish line. Last year health issues prevented John Harris from making the trip. This year, Harris’ parents operated the “chase vehicle,” following with a truck and trailer.
“Kudos to my Dad who drove from Maine to Florida with a truck and trailer and race car and then followed the course to Colorado, and then he drove everything back from Colorado to Maine,” Harris said
Harris said another shout out goes to Reinhardt, as it was his first time navigating a race like this. “Not only did he keep the car running great, but (he) did a phenomenal job navigating,” Harris said.
“By far the worst part was having to pull the car over while it was still running good, to keep from blowing the engine because of the heat,” said Harris. “To turn the car off while you’re essentially in the running for the grand championship. It’s like leading the Daytona 500 with two laps to go and going into the pits because you know the motor is about to pop.”
Another tough moment cited by Harris was getting super hot coolant from the radiator sprayed back into his face while driving.
Next year’s race starts in Kentucky and ends in Gardiner, Maine.
“The plan is to win the Great Race Grand Championship rolling into Gardiner, Maine, and then retire,” said Harris. “We’re going to rebuild that 1931 radiator and win it all on our home turf.”
