2023 Great Race: Team Windup Key

The continuing adventures of Team Windup Key and the 2023 Great Race. This year’s event is now in the rearview mirror, providing a chance to reflect on all that transpired. As you may recall, just days before the transport truck was due to arrive in Arizona and haul Mark Shaw’s 1965 Mustang to Florida, a major mishap occurred. The episode causing the withdrawal of the Mustang from this year’s event is detailed in Great Race Preparation.

Fortunately, Mark also has a 1970 Volkswagon Karmann Ghia, a proven vehicle that had successfully completed two prior Great Races. However, the vehicle change came much too late to be properly reflected in the 2023 Great Race Official Program. The program listed as being in the Sportsman Division instead of the Expert Division, but the car number and our names correctly identified us.

One would think that the last-minute switch from the 1965 Mustang to the 1970 Karmann Ghia would meet the full quota of drama for Team Windup Key. However, it was only the beginning. Missing the original transport pickup window, Mark had to arrange for an alternate delivery. It was the last car to be picked up on June 16th and was to be the first car dropped off in Florida on June 19, two days before our arrival on the 21st.

The Karmann Ghia has a GPS tracker, allowing Mark to keep tabs on its progress across the country. A couple of days later, the tracker showed the car at a standstill near Houston, Texas. Turns out the driver’s father lives in Houston, and the driver was spending Father’s Day with him. “Not to worry,” he said, “your car will be there on the 20th.”

As we were heading to the airport, Mark received bad news from the transport truck driver…

Delivery Drama

The transport driver had stopped outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana to pick up some tires. At that time, he discovered the rear gate and lift were not working, and he had been stuck there for two days. He was waiting on a new control valve and said that getting the car there in time for our Thursday, June 22nd, 2:00 PM Tech Inspection was looking iffy.

Good news. The part was delivered and installed overnight. The transport driver was back on the road by the early hours of Wednesday, June 21, and the most recent update said he was now just nine hours outside of St. Augustine.

Wednesday evening arrived and still no car. The GPS tracker said the Karmann Ghia was now near Moss Port, Mississippi. A little further away than expected, but not a major problem yet. Then, at 11:30 PM, the next update came in. The transport truck was involved in a multi-vehicle pileup on I-10 near Pensacola. The Karmann Ghia was okay, but the transport truck was inoperable due to a damaged radiator. Perhaps it was time to add another verse to the “Great Race Preparation” song…

On a dark swampy highway
I-10 to be clear
A multi-car pileup
Involving our Ghia so dear

It was now Thursday, 2:15 PM, and time for our Tech Inspection, but the Karmann Ghia was nowhere to be found. The transport company was eventually able to get a “hot shot” delivery crew to pick up the car. At 11:30 PM, it finally arrived.

WE HAVE A CAR!!! A literal 11th-hour event (11:30 PM). The photo above makes it clear why we are Team Windup Key. And yes, the key actually turns (unwinds) while the engine is running. It was late, it was time to get some sleep, and tomorrow was a rally day.

Stage 0: The Trophy Run

It’s getting real now. The wonderful Great Race staff provided us with an emergency Tech Inspection slot, so we were ready to go…or so we thought. When we fired up the Karmann Ghia that morning, the speedometer didn’t work. Fortunately, Mark had a spare speedometer, but it kept dropping to zero (resetting) as we drove down the road. Turns out the onboard processor was overloading, so Mark removed two of the four magnets from the wheel, effectively cutting the number of calculations required in half.

We then did a quick calibration run and barely made it back to the hotel for the start of the practice rally, known as the Trophy Run. Our only claim was we finished in the top half (59th of the 125 that ran today). This being the first time Mark and I were ever in a car together, let alone having rallied together, we had a few kinks to work out.

Stage 1: St Augustine, Florida to Tipton, Georgia

The start of each year’s Great Race is a spectacle to behold, and this year lived up to its heritage. All 124 cars were on display at Francis Field for a couple of hours before taking off from the starting line exactly one minute apart.

Stage 1 consisted of five legs (checkpoints) along the route to Tifton, Georgia. Our score for the day was 22 seconds, with half of that coming on the last leg, where we were 11 seconds early. After the first day, we were in 65th place (out of 124) — not nearly as good as we had hoped.

Great Race Day 1 Publications

• Article/Pictures: Great Race 2023 – Day 1 – St. Augustine, FL to Tifton, GA
• Video: 2023 Stage 1 Highlight Video

Stage 2: Tipton, Georgia to Birmingham, Alabama

Each day, exactly 30 minutes before our start time, we receive the day’s route instructions. The image below shows pages 7 and 9 of the 22 pages for Stage 2. Things were going well for us for the first couple of hours, and we received just a 1-second early penalty at the first checkpoint. After passing through Plains, Georgia (and yes, we drove passed the smiling Jimmy Carter peanut), disaster struck in the form of a navigational error.

On instruction #64, I made the worst navigational error possible. I told Mark to turn right, and he did. However, we were supposed to go straight on a road that curved to the right instead of turning right. This area of Georgia is sparsely populated and it was many miles between instructions. We eventually came to a stop sign and executed instruction #65. About 20 minutes later we arrived at an intersection where we thought we could execute instruction #66, but something didn’t look right. We turned right and then saw a highway sign that was not for Highway 41. We turned around and went back to the intersection in question. At that time, we were 25 seconds late, or so we thought.

Upon examining the intersection again, we came to the sad conclusion that we were off course. Maps and GPS are strictly forbidden, but there are no rules against asking strangers for help. We stopped at a nearby convenience store and asked someone how to get to Highway 41 going towards Auburn, Alabama (our lunch stop). The person seemed quite perplexed by the question, asked his passenger, and then just shrugged his shoulders. I moved on to another customer in the parking lot, and he pointed toward the road we had come into town on and said it was a long way off.

We began backtracing our route and soon saw a sign stating we were on Highway 153. According to the instructions, we were supposed to go straight at the Highway 153 intersection — not turn on it. I now understood my mistake, and we began looking for the intersection where the error was made. It took us about half an hour to get back there, making us more than an hour late.

By the time we got to Checkpoint #2, we were so late they had closed the checkpoint, and the crew was driving away. Missing a checkpoint is a 3-minute penalty. Additionally, when you miss a checkpoint, there is not a “start” time for the next leg. We were able to make up a significant amount of time before the next checkpoint and arrived there 9 minutes late (calculated from a “perfect” time). The maximum “late” penalty is 2 minutes, unless you are more than 30 minutes late, which is considered a “miss” and comes with a 3-minute penalty.

On legs 4 and 5, we had scores of 3 seconds and 6 seconds, which along with our 1-second score on leg 1 was fairly respectable. However, our two big penalties gave us a score of 5 minutes and 10 seconds for the day. As bad as that was, a dozen cars had even worse scores. We finished 111th out of 123 cars that started that day and fell to 104th in the cumulative scoring.

The good news is that over the 7 qualifying stages, our worst 4 legs will be dropped from scoring (once 5 stages are complete). Therefore, our 3-minute and 2-minute legs will eventually be dropped.

They say we learn from our mistakes. If true, I must be getting very smart.

Great Race Day 2 Publications

• Article/Pictures: Great Race 2023 – Day 2 – Tifton, GA to Birmingham, AL
• Video: 2023 Day 2 Highlight Video

Stage 3: Birmingham, Alabama to Memphis, Tennessee

Stage 3 was the Elvis stage. We had lunch in Tupelo, Mississippi near his childhood home. Upon arriving in Memphis, we drove passed The Lisa Marie and stayed at the Graceland Guesthouse. The Guesthouse included a peanut butter bar.

We came as close as we could to turning in an Elvis LP record album (33 1/3 RPM) score of 33 seconds. This was good for 28th place on the day, and with our bad legs starting to come off the cumulative scoring, we moved up to Elvis 56th place overall. The Elvis 56 album was made into the Elvis 56 film in 1987. As I said, this was the Elvis stage.

Great Race Day 3 Publications

• Article/Pictures: Great Race 2023 – Day 3 – Birmingham, AL to Memphis, TN
• Video: 2023 Day 3 Highlight Video

Stage 4: Memphis, Tennessee to Russellville, Arkansas

Day 4 started with us crossing the Mississippi River into Arkansas rice country. Lunch was in North Little Rock, and our overnight stop was in Russellville.

Team Windup Key was making steady improvements, and turned in a score of 20 seconds for the day. There were six legs, and our worst score for any leg was just 6 seconds. Additionally, we got an Ace on the second leg, which is rewarded with a pair of Ace decals and the associated bragging rights. Aces are awarded for turning in a perfect score of zero on a leg. Today’s good run moved us up from 56th to 40th in the overall (cumulative) scoring.

Great Race Day 4 Publications

• Article/Pictures: Great Race 2023 – Day 4 – Memphis, TN to Russellville, AR
• Video: 2023 Day 4 Highlight Video (catch a glimpse of us at the 5:49 and 12:59 marks)

Stage 5: Russellville, Arkansas to Joplin, Missouri

Stage 5 took us into the Ozarks, testing the ability of all the Great Race vehicles to maintain their speed on uphill climbs. We stopped for lunch in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I’ve been to 49 of the 50 states (Alaska is on the bucket list), and I have to say, that Eureka Springs is probably the most adorable, unique, wonderful, and beautiful town I have ever visited. The actual lunch was great too — a fajita bar in a spacious air-conditioned hotel conference room. Mark and I agreed that it should win the Best Lunch Stop Award, but we did not get a vote in that contest (Auburn, Alabama won). I need to return when I can spend more time, and I highly recommend that if you are anywhere near that part of the country, be sure to include Eureka Springs in your itinerary.

The day’s instructions were a whopping 33 pages long. All was going well for us until the 4th leg, where we encountered a one-lane bridge. We were delayed more than a minute and worked vigorously to make up that time before the next checkpoint. Unfortunately, the subsequent instructions and speed changes were coming rapidly, not giving us many chances to make up time. Four pages and numerous calculations later, we arrived at checkpoint #4 and I thought we were still 20 seconds late. Time delay requests can be submitted for valid (out of your control) delays. A 20-second request for a 65-second one-lane bridge delay (we made up 45 of those seconds) was considered legitimate and it was honored.

This was a case of “be careful what you ask for.” Turns out, I had made some calculation errors. We were actually only 7 seconds late, so our 20-second delay request actually changed our score from 7 late to 13 early. Our original 14-second score became a 20-second score. However, this was still good enough for 14th place and improved to overall standing from 40th to 35th.

Additionally, we had two Aces! Leg 3 and leg 5 (the two encompassing the leg 4 fiasco) had perfect zero scores.

Great Race Day 5 Publications

• Article/Pictures: Great Race 2023 – Day 5 – Russellville, AR to Joplin, MO
• Video: 2023 Day 5 Highlight Video (catch a glimpse of us arriving in Joplin at the 9:37 mark)

Stage 6: Joplin, Missouri to Wichita, Kansas

Day 6 took us into eastern Kansas where most of the county roads run north-south or east-west and the turns are at right angles. This can be clearly seen in the route map below. The day ended at Riverfront Stadium in Wichita, Kansas. In addition to dinner, we were treated to a baseball game between the Wichita Wind Surge and the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. And…..since it was Thursday, the Wind Surge adopted their other persona (and uniforms) to play as the Wichita Turbo Tubs (that’s a story for another day). But wait, there’s more…it was also Thirsty Thursday and all beers were $2 (tax included).

When it was time to leave Riverfront Stadium, the Karmann Ghia would not start. Local Great Race veteran, Matt Shawver from the 1985 race, came to our rescue. Matt went to fetch some new ignition parts for us, although Mark was able to get the Ghia running again before Matt returned. It turns out the points were frozen. We met up with Matt again back at the hotel, but like the true hero he is, he refused to take any compensation for his time, effort, and expenses. Hey Matt, thanks again, and we need to see you back in the Great Race!

We turned in a score of 21 seconds for the day, which was good for 27th place, and improved our overall standing to 31st.

Great Race Day 6 Publications

• Article/Pictures: Great Race 2023 – Day 6 – Joplin, MO to Wichita, KS
• Video: 2023 Day 6 Highlight Video

Stage 7: Wichita, Kansas to Garden City, Kansas

We didn’t get back to our hotel room until 10:00 PM the night before, but that did not deter us from turning in our best score on Stage 7. There were six legs on this stage and we had one Ace, three legs at 1 second, and two legs at 2 seconds, for a total of 7 seconds. That put us in a 4-way tie for 4th place. One of the tie-breakers is the age of the car. The vintage of the three cars we tied with were 1961, 1965, and 1968, which pushed us in the “newer” 1970 Karmann Ghia to 7th place. This moved us all the way up to 29th place in the overall standings — a huge improvement from being in 104th place after Stage 2.

If you thought Kansas only had wheat, then be sure to check out the photo below of us driving by a Kansas cornfield. Garden City, Kansas was our overnight stop, and they treated us to one of the best taco-burrito bars I have ever encountered. I personally tracked down the chef to express my favorable opinion and grateful appreciation.

Tomorrow, the 2-stage Championship begins, which takes us to Pueblo tomorrow and the big finish in Colorado Springs on Sunday.

Great Race Day 7 Publications

• Article/Pictures: Great Race 2023 – Day 7 – Wichita, KS to Garden City, KS
• Video: 2023 Day 7 Highlight Video (there is a 2-second glimpse of us at the 7:06 mark)

Stage 8: Garden City, Kansas to Pueblo, Colorado

The last two days, Stages 8 and 9, of the Great Race constitute the Championship Run. Teams are not able to discard any bad legs during the Championship Run. You must live with what you get. Unfortunately for us, we had a 23-second score on leg 4, which we could have dropped if it occurred on any prior day, but not that day.

After lunch, things got hectic. Traffic was heavy on these probably normally quiet county roads, plus the rally route had us circling back over some of the same roads. With more than 100 cars spaced a minute apart, the Great Race was creating its own heavy traffic conditions. Sirens were blaring as a police car passed us. Later we would see him again with Car #1, the current leader and defending champion, pulled off the road. They were not being ticketed, the car was inoperable and the police were there for safety reasons. Without the ability to discard a leg, Car #1 was no longer able to defend its championship.

In all the excitement, we overshot a turn and had to go back, putting us 22 seconds late. Turns and speed changes were coming quickly, but we were briefly able to cut our time loss to just 6 seconds. Then we overshot another turn, pushing us to 25 seconds late, and then more turns and speed changes while trying to make up time. I thought I had us back on time, but I must have had a calculation error, and we ended up being 23 seconds late.

Our score of 51 seconds put us in 81st place for the day. Miraculously, it only dropped our overall standing from 29th to 30th.

Great Race Day 8 Publications

• Article/Pictures: Great Race 2023 – Day 8 – Garden City, KS to Pueblo, CO
• Video: 2023 Day 8 Highlight Video (there is a 25-second segment of us arriving in Lamar, Colorado at the 4:15 mark)

Stage 9: to the Finish Line in Colorado Springs, Colorado

Stage 9, the final run, took us into the foothills of the Rocky Mountain Front Range, where the competitive route ranged between 6,000 to 8,000 feet above sea level. We started off great, getting an Ace on the first leg. On the second leg, the Karmann Ghia developed altitude sickness. We were on some tight, twisty roads, only traveling at 15 MPH when we came to an uphill stop sign. After a brief pause, the Ghia refused to move forward. It kept stalling out and gasping for air. When Mark finally coaxed it to move, we were 35 seconds late. We thought we were still late coming into the next checkpoint, but we were recorded as being 24 seconds early. I believe my error was instructing Mark to use correction speeds of 20%, while my calculations were assuming a 10% correction factor.

On leg 3, we encountered an instruction to turn right on Red Rock Cir. We missed the sign, but because the road was indeed a circle, we encountered it again about a half mile down the road. We turned right that time, but we were now traveling in the wrong direction and passing rally cars going the other way. When we reached the road where we were supposed to turn (the first encounter of Red Rock Cir) we realized our mistake and turned around. At this point, we had no idea how far behind we were, but we soon passed the car that was supposed to be three minutes behind us.

Fortunately, it turned out there was plenty of time before the next checkpoint, and we got ourselves back in line. We tried to hack off the car in front of us to better estimate being one minute behind him. Unfortunately, this part of the route also contained some emergency instructions, and each time we took a new hack reading, the time between us and the car in front of us changed. At that point, it was anybody’s guess where we should be, and we guessed incorrectly by 20 seconds.

Having regained our composure, we had a score of 4 seconds on leg 4. Then, on the final leg of the final stage of the 2023 Great Race, we turned in a perfect score for our final Ace. It was a not-so-great day, although we ended on a good note with that Ace.

Our score of 48 seconds was only good enough for 62nd place on Stage 9. For the entire race, the team of Mark Shaw and Ron Rowland in the 1970 Karmann Ghia took 35th place out of the 124 cars that started in Florida.

Great Race Day 9 Publications

• Article/Pictures: Great Race 2023 – Day 9 – The Grand Finish In Colorado Springs, CO
• Video: 2023 Day 9 Highlight Video (scheduled to be released October 4, 2023)

To Finish Is To Win

To Finish Is To Win is the official motto of the Great Race, and any participant will tell you how true that is. However, since there is a $50,000 first prize at stake, there needs to be an “actual” winner. For 2023, the winners were Howard and Doug Sharp in their 1918 Hudson Pikes Peak Hillclimber. No strangers to the winner’s circle, this was their 4th win, having taken first place in 2011, 2015, and 2019.

2023 Great Race Official Program

Great Race Programs are collector items. This year, the cover features the 1932 Ford Speedster called “Stars & Stripes” driven by Josh Hull and navigated by Trevor Stahl. They were the Grand Champions last year, and were in first place after the seven qualifying stages, As mentioned above, they had a mishap in stage 8 which knocked them out of the running.

I am very familiar with this car. My former rally partner, Great Race Legend Kyle Martin, built this car for the 1988 Great American Race, and I was the navigator. We called the car “The Spirit of America.”

Further Reading and Background

• You can get a rotating Windup Key for your car.
• Great Race clocks, stopwatches, bezels, and rally accessories for sale.
• The Great Race is not a speed event. Instead, it is a Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) rally where competitors are charged a penalty for every second they are early or late at multiple secret checkpoints along the day’s route. The objective is to be on course and on time, with the winners being the team with the fewest penalty points (lowest score). Vehicles need to be a 1974 model year or older, and a few 1916 automobiles usually participate each year. Scores are adjusted for the age of the car to encourage entries of older vehicles. Learn more at the Great Race website.
• Awards Banquet: Great Race 2023 Awards and Top Finishers
• In my opinion, Car #31, the gorgeous 1931 Auburn Boattail Speedster deserved to be the Best of Show. However, I didn’t get a vote and the honor went to Car #70, a 1970 Chevrolet Camaro Z28.