Two student docents from the Maine Classic Car Museum are taking part in the 2024 Great Race as part of the X-Cup Challenge. Click here for part nine of their journey.
We capitalized on our return to New England today in a big way. Leaving Providence, we skirted Boston, passed through Concord, New Hampshire, and ended up in Augusta, Maine – – four state capitals in one day.
The pressure was on, as the race master really changed up the start order on us. We suddenly found ourselves starting in position number two, as they wanted the home state delegates to cross the finish line first in Freeport, Maine.
On our first leg, we encountered a slow moving truck who turned out right in front of us, and forced us to stop for over 30 seconds. We skillfully made up this time by calculating an increased acceleration using a rally formula called the “rule of fives,” a formula table to make up lost time or bleed off extra time. By doing this, we finished the first leg just one second off the mark.
On our second leg, we turned down a wrong road, but quickly whipped around and marked how much time we had lost. However when we found the main road again, we noticed our course position had dropped and now we were behind the 4th car instead of in our original second position. To get back into our correct starting position order we used a strategy known as “hacking.”
This strategy entails passing cars to reclaim your correct start order place in the race, which helps manage staying on-time overall. Our mentors, Peter and Susan, taught us this strategy, and we watched them deploying it as they shot by us and two other cars to reclaim their number one start position. We followed suit, passing a blue Alfa Romeo and white Jaguar in order to retain our spot as #2, and hopefully come back on time.
The strategy worked for us on this leg–we aced it! This was an incredible accomplishment, and we are grateful to our wonderful mentors. Incredibly we did it again on the very next leg, and we had back-to-back aces. We can’t think of a better way to return to our home state. Our rounds for the day ended up being our best yet, with a one second round and two other under 30 seconds.
The town of Freeport welcomed us on Main Street. The sun was shining bright,it was a perfect day, and we really enjoyed their hospitality. We’re getting closer to the finish line, and need to turn in early yet again as we have a busy day ahead, touring Maine.
