 Corky Coker Home |
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Daily Summary of the 2007 Great Race Blogs
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| Day Minus 2 Arrival In Concord |
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"The start of the Great Race looms before us all year long and we look forward to it but its a lot of work and is a hard two weeks on the road. We start working on our 1937 Shafer 8 long before the time comes to leave for our start city. Andrew Givens, GR Ace Wrench award winner in 2005 works for us at Coker Tire and did all the work to get the Shafer ready." |
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| Day Minus 1
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"I remember as a kid thinking Christmas will never get here. OK, now I am an adult and I still have those thoughts but about stuff I anticipate and look forward to doing, like Great Race. Come on Start… Let’s do this thing!" |
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Day 1 |
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"First screw up. Missed a dang turn…figured it out quickly but had a check point. We were both really bummed. We finished the day with three 03 second legs and a 1:50 leg for a total of a 1:40 total for the day. The scoring system is really different this year. Now its kinda like NASCAR…you get points for different places, for Aces, and so on." |
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| Day 2 Spartanburg, SC to Chattanooga, TN |
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"The rains came hard but we were received by a huge enthusiastic crowd at our headquarters. My daughter Casey was in charge of the event. She did awesome! My staff worked their butts off to make the Chattanooga Overnight stop a success. Everyone worked so hard. We keep hearing from the racers how wonderful the food and their experience was. Coker and Honest folks…you’re da best!" |
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Day 3 |
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"There was a one long one lane bridge on the course today. When we zipped up on it, there was a truck about 25 percent of the way across. I just bulled my way ( cause we were on the clock!) and the kind gentleman stopped and backed off the bridge before I got to him. It was exciting." |
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Day 4 |
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"We had a great pit stop in Bolivar, Tennessee (pronounced Ball e ver). Theresa conferred with Oarta (pronounced like a W) Wells about some maneuvers about the time I stepped up for a funny photo op. Two good lookin’ girls! Oarta’s husband Thom said she was gettin’ serious n orderin’ him to turn here, do that n stuff. Man I relate to that too!" |
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Day 5 |
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"Poor navigators.. I feel so sorry for them! Not! They get all the credit for what us drivers deliver for them every time! You see…there is a brewing class (or maybe cockpit position) war between drivers and navigators. Those n’s say us d’s are just dumb without their instruction. I think the navigators got the cush job cause they can take a nap on transits n stuff. They obviously disagree." |
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| Day 6 Fort Smith, AR to Norman, OK |
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"I think I told you earlier that Greg and his friend Sam won the event in 2005. They had a bunch of performance numbers. (That means the speed a car takes to reach a speed or stop or time lost for a turn or something) Numbers for sunny days, and obviously cloudy ones…rainy ones, cold days, hot days, full moon days, leap year days and days in the midwest, southwest, hilly country or flat country. Sounds to me like he’s serious about it!" |
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| Day 7 Norman, OK to Lewisville, TX |
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"We had a great surprise when Theresa and I came into Lewisville. Sandy McRae, GR founder Tom McRae’s widow was there to see us all come in. Sister McRae was there too...Sandy and Sister came into Coker Central to help console us all with bad scores. We had a pretty good number of folks that needed therapy time!" |
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| Day 8 Grapevine, TX to Abilene, TX |
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"Our start was later than normal because of our chapel and stuff but we finally did get rolling at 930 AM. We got to Eastland, Texas by 130PM and had some wonderful catfish on the town square. The mayor stopped by my table to suggest that i step around to the other side of the square to read obout Rip the Horned Toad and how he miraculously lived when put in a cornerstone for 31 years!" |
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| Day 9 Abilene TX to Clovis, NM |
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"The afternoon was exciting because every single time we turned, we turned toward a very ominous storm. Well, we finally caught up w it. 50 mile an hour winds with hail (it was hell!) Blowing sideways and rain so hard we could not see at all! We pulled over and hunkered down to ride out the storm with the idea of turning in a time delay." |
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| Day 10 Clovis, NM to Albuquerque, NM |
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"In the community hall where they fed us they had a small and young (kids in grammar school n maybe a couple in junior high) bluegrass band. They were good and I helped em raise some money to buy a PA system and go to a bluegrass festival. They were grateful. I think we raised several hundred bucks for them." |
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| Day 11 Albuquerque, NM to Flagstaff, AZ |
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"Today was another one of those days we have had lately where we take our rain suit off and on. We left Winslow looking for rain, and the end of the day. We moved across a time zone again into Mountain time which means we rallied for another hour today more than yesterday. The “show time” in the evening always kicks up about 6 PM local time, so we gotta work til they are ready." |
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| Day 12 Flagstaff, AZ to Laughlin, Nevada |
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"We caught the truck on the next big hill doing 35 when we were holding 55 mph. Double line, curve, hill, and one car behind him. She asked me if I could see, to which I answered “sort of”. Didn’t lose a single mph or second! Thats all I will say about that!" |
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| Day 13 Laughlin, NV to Pomona, CA |
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"Today is Friday the 13th and we have our final full day of rallying. Bad luck huh? Luck is chance, and pretty doggone arbitrary. I don’t believe it. I choose to believe otherwise that you make your own luck by hard work, and a little prayer and a smile from above. Theresa and I were using all of the above on the last championship day." |
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Final Day |
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"I remember Tom McRae and boy did he have spirit! I can remember that rascal pointing his stub index finger at me telling me what he thought I needed to do or which adventure he was convincing me that I needed to participate with him on. Tom would be proud that the Great Race is still moving and we are still having fun celebrating this wonderful country we live in, having a great time with family and friends enjoying old cars." |
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