Tinkering Belles with Tamara Robertson
Tinkering Belles with Tamara Robertson
Tinkering Belles - 66' Fairlane Race Wrap with Annie, Ashely, Audrey & Christina - Great Race Edition
Do you love automotive repair , road rally racing, grit that Never Says Die and general Maker Shop Talk?
If so, join Tamara Robertson (Mythbusters, Seekers of Science) as she revs up the fun in this all new mini-season dedicated to the Hemming's Great Race and the amazing team of Trailblazing Creators assembled by Riley's Rebuilds!
As a shout-out to the 66' Ford Fairlane Race Vehicle, this episode kicks off with a Tech Talk about the Historic Fairlane before Tamara sits down with Drivers & Navigator, Trailblazers and Makers Extraordinaire Annie ( @annies_vw ) Christina ( @Christinalardie ) Ashley ( @_rustic_beauty ) and Audrey ( @audreysQuadries ) !
Topics they cover include (but are surely not limited to):
- Preparing for SEMA
- #CreatorRace Team
- Importance of Communication
- Shout Out Real Deal Revolution
- Being a Trailblazer
- Road Rally Racing
- The Fairlanes Follies
- Jessi's Legacy on the Road Race
- Advice for New Road Rally Racers
.. and so much more
As we dig into Season 3's 37th episode of Tinkering Belles you're surely not going to want to miss it!
So join in on Tamara's adventure as a Maker as she works to amplify the BAMF Females Behind the Builds one interview at a time!
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If you enjoyed the show join in on the Maker adventure with Tamara and her guests on the Tinkering Belles Instagram page.
You can follow Annie's adventures here, here, and here:
Annie's Tinkering Belles Interview & Links- https://www.buzzsprout.com/1755286/episodes/17465279-tinkering-belles-annie-great-race-edition
You can follow Ashley's adventures here, here, and here:
Ashley's Tinkering Belles Interview & Links - https://www.buzzsprout.com/1755286/episodes/17393786-tinkering-belles-ashley-great-race-edition
You can follow Audrey's adventures here, here, and here:
Audrey's Tinkering Belles Interview & Links - https://www.buzzsprout.com/1755286/episodes/17480952-tinkering-belles-audrey-great-race-edition
You can follow Christina's adventures here, here, and here:
Christina's Tinkering Belles Interview & Links: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1755286/episodes/17385647-tinkering-belles-christina-great-race-edition
Music for this Episode was provided by Bill Trowell Music. Visit BillTrowellMusic.com to hear more and to subscribe to Bill's Patreon, where he covers favorite showtunes, movie themes, classic rock and jazz, as well as requests from Patron's.
Greetings, shopmates, and welcome to Tinkering Belles, a show about DIY, design, and all things hands-on. The sky's the limit as we talk props, metalwork, cosplay, woodwork, leather, electronics, and so much more. I'm Tamara Robertson, your host, so strap on your tool belts because we're about to get into some skill sharing, y'all.
TAMARA:Today I'm going to be joined by a team of skilled creators who joined forces for the great relay race behind the wheel of a 66th Fairlane. I don't want to give away too much, but these young ladies rightfully earned the Never Say Die Award. So if that doesn't make you want to stick around and hear more, then you might be at the wrong podcast.
TAMARA:But first, let's go ahead and have our tech talk of the day. So we're going to be talking about the Hemmings Great race today and the car we ran it in, our beloved Ford Fairlane. This vintage ride has a serious history. And while it may not always get the spotlight like Mustangs and Corvettes, it holds a powerful legacy. So let's back it up. Where did the Ford Fairlane get its start?
TAMARA:The Ford Fairlane debuted in 1955, named after Henry Ford's estate, Fairlane, in Dearborn, Michigan. It was designed to be Ford's new flagship full-size model. Throughout the late 50s and early 60s, the Fairlane evolved to compete with mid-sized sedans, bridging the gap between luxury and performance with clean styling and V8 options. In 1966, the Fairlane was redesigned and became a serious contender in the muscle car era, especially with the release of the Fairlane GT and GTA models featuring 390 and 427 cubic inch engines. While it didn't have the Mustang Splash, the Fairlane quietly made a name for itself in drag racing and street performance, offering factory-built sleepers with serious power. Today, the Fairlane is a cult classic for muscle car purists. A bit rarer, a bit rawer, and a lot of fun when brought back to the life by the right hands, like ours.
TAMARA:Well, that's it for your tech talk. As always, you can join in on the conversation with my maker friends and me on the Tinkering Bell's Instagram and X pages. Just search Belle's Tinkering, hit follow, and share your DIY adventures with us. Have a classic car you think deserves more love? Let me know. And it may be featured in a future episode. Tell us what you liked, what you hated, or possibly even what we missed.
TAMARA:So now we're gonna be getting into the main event, and I'm so excited to introduce you to our next team of makers. So drumroll, please. It's presenting Ashley, Christina, and Anne Audrey. That's a lot of A's and so much power. I am so excited to see you guys again. How are you?
ANNIE:So awesome. It is so good to see you too.
TAMARA:So you all are literally sitting with the Fairlane. I love it. You're down in Florida doing some work on her to get her SEMA ready. Audience, we are back with the team. Um, if you guys have been staying along for this season, you guys got to meet each of these incredible women along the journey and before the journey for some of them and on the journey for others. You guys have all shared where they can find you and follow you prior. So, audience, please go back, check out those um individual episodes as well. But we were the creator race team. So, how about we kick it off with each of you sharing what you created and where specifically the audience can find those gems about the journey with the fairlane?
ANNIE:So I'm Annie and I'm with Annie's VW. That's Annie's underscore VW. And you mostly find me on Instagram where I just share uh what I'm doing with my builds there. And if you can't have that, you know, connect the dots there. I mostly deal with Volkswagens, specifically the vintage Volkswagens, specifically Beatles.
AUDREY:I'm Audrey, and you can find me uh on Riley's Rebuilds, and then uh and they're on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and then I also have uh an Instagram as well. You can find me, Audrey's Quadrice is what it's called.
ASHLEY:I'm Ashley. I can be found on Instagram mostly. I am working on getting into YouTube, and on Instagram I am underscore rustic underscore beauty, and YouTube is just rustic underscore beauty. So I mainly just work on my 68 Torino and my 1990 Caprice wagon. I just like to keep them running and on the road.
CHRISTINA:My name's Christina, and most of my content, especially for the great race, was on YouTube. It's Christina's Garage Gearhead in Training. I do also do Instagram, TikTok, and all of those. I am Christina Lardi underneath those accounts. My YouTube's hyper-focused on being a gearhead in training and learning all of the things. So I'm a little bit across the board with the YouTube. My Instagram is hyper-focused on personal development. So you'll see fitness, nutrition, mindset, and cars as well.
TAMARA:Amazing. And team, for those of you that are listening, if you're new to the show, the links are gonna be in the show notes. You definitely do not want to miss any of the things that are going on in these ladies' lives. Not only the recap of the race and all of the adventures that we were on with the Fairlane, but also what's coming next.
TAMARA:So, as you ladies know, I am a superhero scientist. I love origin stories. You each shared your Gearhead origin story with me and your individual episodes. What I'd love to talk about right now is what it was like originating the actual story of the creator race team when you guys showed up, met each other first day on the race, each of you getting to know a whole new team of racers that you had never even gotten a car with before, whole new car. What was that like for each of you? And do you have like a memorable moment that you remember from your first night?
ASHLEY:Honestly, everything just kind of clicked immediately. We had all kind of been following each other already on social media, so we were kind of just online friends. But the minute I met these people, all these girls, it was just an instant click. Like everybody just gets it. It these are my people. Like that's just it was immediate.
CHRISTINA:If you go back and watch the YouTube the first day, we met in the airport, Ian Ashley, and I actually got her on camera. We were trying to find each other, and she wasn't really sure where to look. And as soon as I was like, hey, Ashley, she like looks over, it was like wonderful. Um, I I have met not with this particular group, but I have met people that I have connected with online previously, so I kind of knew what to expect. Um, for people who've never met people that they've connected with previously online. The biggest thing is when you know people are being truly authentic and that they are the same person online as they are in person. Um and if you click online when people are truly being themselves, most of the time you're gonna click in person as well. I was in the car mostly with these three ladies. We were trying so hard not to get lost. We had gotten lost the days before. Um, and we like it wasn't it wasn't Audrey, like it was all of us because we're all trying to backseat drive and then put like it was everything all together. So we were working really hard to get over the finish line at the right time. And we're going through the town, going like 50, 50 minutes, 50 miles per hour, 15 miles per hour, it's a five, first time, and it's getting and you can see it on the video that I posted. And it's cars, and it's like very funny, very good.
ANNIE:Sorry, sir I'm gonna go to the first time.
CHRISTINA:That was great. That was probably like my my favorite moment, and the fact that we got it on camera. So awesome. We got so many moments like on candid, and it it was wonderful. So many good memories. Yeah, so that was you know really a really good way to continue my gearhead story because I'd never done anything like this before. So being able to go across the the starting line with this group, I mean, pushing the car across the finish line that one day uh because that little what was it that popped off the carburetor?
ANNIE:Uh just a little cap popped off vacuum cap. Then we were just getting yeah, then it just messed everything up.
CHRISTINA:And we had no idea it was the vacuum cap at the time. So, like it was, and Annie was driving that day. Yeah. So do you mind describing what happened?
ANNIE:Well, yeah, it was just uh we were just getting into the finish line, and all of a sudden, I don't know, uh, we just backfired real bad, and we figured that the backfire, the pressure from the backfire just popped that cap right off, and then it just went like really steeply downhill from there.
TAMARA:Hopefully, it was on it on a downhill to help you guys get the car across the finish.
ANNIE:No, no, we wish it was. We kind of limped it in the best we could. We could kind of start it again and kind of limp it in, but man, it was yeah. But once we figured that out, then it was then we were able to fix the problem. So yeah.
TAMARA:For those of you that heard Audrey's interview, we've kind of covered that journey of like going from that the the quiet person that everyone expected to be very quiet to being this very just blossoming, amazing mechanic woman out there on the field. What was it like you like for you on the very first night?
AUDREY:Well, I really didn't know what to expect. I just knew that there was gonna be a lot of uh creator women that were gonna be here. Uh and so yeah, I wasn't even sure who all was gonna be there, but uh it was just great. Like it was just the best. And I clicked with everybody, and and you know, it's just awesome. And it's awesome to have everybody back, you know, too.
TAMARA:So and Annie, I know you covered a little bit of your story, but you know, I don't know that you've ever not found a friend in the world. I would love to hear what it would be like for you the first day showing up to the new group of ladies.
ANNIE:Yeah, oh well, yeah, I don't think I've ever found someone that I couldn't find a way to to be friends with them. I think you can find connections more often than than not, but uh I think for me, I didn't join these guys until they had been running for a couple days. And I was watching on social media what was happening to them on the road, which was not a positive look, I'm gonna say. Like it, and and I remember flying down and having major sort of like anxious feelings about it because I thought, I'm a Volkswagen girl, I don't know if I can help it. We're like broke down on the side of the road. So I was feeling a little bit of anxiety about joining them and and getting stuck and you know, things not going really well. But I'm game for it. So I thought, well, you know, you you don't know what's gonna happen until you do it. And so we just kind of dove in, jumped two feet in, and things ended up being great that first day that I was there, other than pushing it across the uh the finish line. But for me, I think the most memorable moment, and it was the three of us were involved. Christina wasn't there, it's when we broke down and were taking the hood off, and then we broke down and we had to get a tow back, and and we we ended up like giving up in a cemetery, basically.
TAMARA:I remember that photo. That's actually probably one of the most memorable photos from the adventure for me. Because when I came in, I came in on a pretty hard day for you all. Like I remember arriving late at night, we were all still out by the RV. You guys have been working on the vehicle all day. You know, for me, the memorable moment was when um Dane, uh Riley Rebild's dad lit his eyebrows on fire. Uh, that was a pretty memorable moment, but also just the commandment. Like the, you know, the whole team, all of us were there. We were all wrenching into the wee hours of the morning. And then we got in, you know, that very that very next day was our first day, which, you know, Audrey, you were in the vehicle with us. And you know, we we we got our nickname um as Dom Perreti because we were taking the great race a quarter mile at a time. But it was such an amazing thing to just see that already that soon into the race, everyone was gelling so well and really just dividing and conquering.
TAMARA:And for those of you that didn't listen to the season yet, please go back and do that. You know, we had 12 incredible creators on this race, 10 of us that were cycling in and out of the fair lane. And the four ladies that are here today are the ones that were in the fair lane for the most of it. And what's really neat to me is based on your interviews, I got to know the different level of car savvy that you each came into it. So, Audrey, you had been working on the fair lane from the very first minute that this race became the inkling of an idea. Granted, that one ended up having its, you know, major mishap. And within, you know, 48 hours of the race, we had to go. You guys ran onto the road, you got a new fair lane, got it out to us. Ashley, you have your grandchildren know, so you know these kind of vehicles inside and out. Annie being a Volkswagen mechanic, you're definitely feel you feel very comfortable under the hood. And then, you know, it was one of those things that Christina, you were just in it. You're like, I want to learn as much as I can, whatever I can. I'm a gearhead in training, I am like hands-on. I kind of showed up with that same, that same mentality and that same excitement. So I have to ask, you know, this car put us through the ringer, through the race, but it also taught us so much. And that's really the value that we find in failing, right? Is the learnings that come from it. So, is there one thing that you learned about the fair lane that you had no idea about going into it? That was just a really exciting new learning from you. And I'm gonna start with the most experience with the fair lane and work backwards to end with Christina. So, Audrey, what did you learn that you didn't know before you left that garage?
AUDREY:Well, honestly, what did I not learn? I learned, I learned so much about it, you know, because we traveled so much before the race as well. Just, you know, we just could not get it to go. Um, and so the the weirdest little uh fact, I guess, that I learned, and I'll probably never have to use this in my life ever, but for a small amount of years, I I'm not even sure when it was, the firing order for the 302 was totally different. I don't know, I mean, I don't even know the firing order, but it was totally different. So right, yeah, for like one year. So um, yeah, that's definitely something that's gonna stick in my head forever because you never think about that, you know, that it it's different firing order, but yeah, so that's gotta be the most interesting thing that I learned.
TAMARA:I love that. And Ashley?
ASHLEY:There is so much that we learn. I mean, I every single day was a learning opportunity and a learning experience. I it's hard to just pick one.
TAMARA:That we can come back to you if we need to. So you can think of me. Okay, we'll we'll jump to we'll jump to Annie. Annie, what about you?
ANNIE:Well, uh these uh so so the basic principles of an engine are the same from a Volkswagen to what we were driving in the fair lane, only a Volkswagen is totally air-cooled, and uh there's some different things about it. So I really was just kind of trying to make connections to what I already knew from a Volkswagen air cooled motor to what we're running there. And um, I had no idea that our the engine that we had was totally overcarburated, apparently by by maybe lots. And so I had no idea that you know we had two carbs running on top that you could just disconnect the one. I actually didn't know that you could just do that and just like cut it in half. So there are lots of little things that were like, oh, that's like this Volkswagen thing in a way, and but it this is what that is on this engine. So it was really helpful for me also to see what they were working on and asking questions just to make the connections so that you know you just expand your base of knowledge a little bit more. But yeah, I had no idea that the the car was that overcarburated until everybody online was like, it's overcarburated.
TAMARA:You know, the peanut gallery always knows. Yeah, they were right. What about you, Christina?
CHRISTINA:Uh well, I learned a load of things. So the first day about the the rod for the grakes was too long. So the day that I drove, I didn't really get very far because the pressure kept increasing, and then the brakes just wouldn't not go, which I think I would prefer to have that they've overworked versus not working at all. Um, and then the second day I learned about that uh air shocks, not air ride. I learned about air shocks and how there can actually be like physical holes in them and how to drive, like you have like a ton of eggs just rolling around in the back of the car so that you don't take out your tires on the side of the car. Um, and then learned about that little nipple thing on the the carburetor um that popped off. And so that was a possibility. Um I learned about vapor lock. Uh and then oh sorry. IY learned a ton of things.
ANNIE:I wasn't what I learned in boating school is everything is basically it.
TAMARA:Is there is there anything left now that that we circled back? What do you what do you add to that?
ASHLEY:Well, I would say like the vapor lock thing. I learned a lot about that because I've always heard people talking about that, like, oh, it's hot, you know, your vapor lock and stuff, but like we experienced it firsthand couple days a couple days, but especially that really hot day. It I think it did reach 100 degrees. That was the day that we were having trouble with we were having trouble anyway, but I think most of those troubles were from Vaporlock and just all the situation with the carburetors and everything. So I learned a lot there with that.
TAMARA:I would say, other than learning that you plug in your car from Annie, I definitely learned a lot about glassing brakes. I I didn't actually know that when you heat up your brakes to that extent that you can actually fix it while in motion. So that was a really good and very valuable learning that I had while on the road uh during the day that we were doing all the switchbacks and had the little hairy moments. So I there was no shortage of things to learn uh for newcomers and oldcomers. So one of the things that I really loved about this race was that that camaraderie element added so much mentorship. You know, we were able to peer mentor each other while we were in the vehicle and while we were working on the vehicle, and then we had that stepwise mentorship from the dads that were part of the journey, but also from the grandmasters. So, for those of you that may be new to the great race, one of the really cool things is you have these grandmasters that are part of the race that have won in the past, and their part of the journey is to pass the torch of that legacy on to the young new racers. And so hopefully you didn't just hear my bunnies go crazy. Um, so one of the things that I wanted to ask is did you all have chances to actually talk with the the grandmasters along the way? And what benefit do you think that it brings to the race as we are trying to keep the legacy of vintage road rally racing alive?
ANNIE:Well, I was able to um uh talk to a lot of because because my focus was always like, oh, look, there's a Volkswagen. So I talked to a lot of the Volkswagen guys, and they had been these guys that had come back over and over again, and a couple of ladies as well. And so it was really interesting to me to just from a sort of how's your engine running perspective, because I know these air-cooled engine, like we were running in 100 degree heat. I had no idea how they were keeping their engines cool because they just cooled so differently, and so it was really cool to talk to them about that. But I think uh all of us will agree that every sort of person that you interacted with who had been doing the race for years and years and years, we're always so happy to answer your questions and so happy to give little tips, and so happy to just like come by and be like, Have you tried this? Have you done this? You know, they were it was it felt like a little uh community of just like uh a village wanting to like support each other. So it was it was a very good experience,
CHRISTINA:I think. The first day, I think was it Chris and Brandon? Was that their names? Yeah, so Chris and Brandon, they drove a I think it was a 68 Mustang. It was uh earlier Mustang, and they had their car was covered with aces, and they sat down with us the first night that we showed up with uh Audrey, with Ashley and I, and like you have the navigator and the driver, usually on those main teams, you only have one of each, with us having so many. They legitimately sat down, even put pieces of paper out to draw things and were giving us really good feedback. And not only did they sit there and explain it to us, they were so excited for us, even when we weren't perfect, they were encouraging and exciting. Every time that we had a win, they were just so pumped. So it just was multifaceted in the support realm. And especially, at least for me, Brandon and Chris were just extra attentive and made sure that they checked in with us to make sure we were doing okay.
ASHLEY:And they stayed up really late, they they gave late nights explaining things to us and going through how to do the math on things and how to drive and navigate. It was really they were really nice, very helpful.
TAMARA:That's incredible. So, with that thought in mind of you know, hindsight being 2020, you guys learned a lot from others that were willing to share. If someone from the new generation is sitting in their chair right now debating, do I want to do a road rally race? Is this really for me? Is this the one that I should do? What's a piece of advice that you would give them having done it and had these helpers along the way?
AUDREY:Well, I think something that's uh super duper important to think about uh is uh what type of support are you gonna have? Uh, because for us, we had uh, you know, uh pretty much a whole team supporting us, you know. So if you break down, for example, you know, like on the RV, we also had a trailer, you know. So uh yeah, just just think about how is it gonna work if you do break down, you know, um, and just planning for that.
ANNIE:I think too, I know uh coker tire, they say to finish is to win. And so I know I know you might want to go there, like for your first time, you might want to go there and be competitive. It might not pan out because you're new and you're figuring things out. So I think uh for those first couple days, yeah, you might want to try and be competitive, but also just try and finish. Make sure you're like staying on top of your navigation and make sure you're you know uh doing the things that you need to do, uh, because the race is really long. So you have to uh it feels like to me that you need a couple days to work out some kinks. So those first couple days, getting across the finish line, that's your win. And then you can work on dialing things in, getting your aces, and then you can start being more competitive. I mean, unless you're coming and you've you've done lots of practicing, but if you if you're coming real green like us, just take a couple days to try and like work kinks out and see how things work.
CHRISTINA:And they have the what was the category of the newbies?
ANNIE:Rookie, that's the rookie league or the rookie division, yeah.
CHRISTINA:So they specifically have a division for the first timers. Not only do they know your rookies, you're competing against other rookies. So you're not competing against the ones that have aces all over masters, right? Um, and and the biggest thing is my my take is to be authentic. So don't pretend that like you have it all put together. Because the thing is that they one, they can everybody can see through it. Um, but also you are gonna create better relationships with everybody across the board by going, Hey, I'm having a hard time with this, rather than just pretending you're not and trying to act cool and whatever. Like they are gonna respect you more, you're gonna have more fun, you're gonna learn so much more, you're gonna do better, like everything's gonna be better just by being who you are, and like me, not knowing anything. I was like, I literally know nothing. And everybody was like, Okay, cool, no problem. That way they know exactly how to communicate with you and how to help you. If you're not true to that, yeah, they won't be able to help you how they want to. So everybody would be frustrated. So, you know, just go for it and you're gonna fall in good hands. You're not doing it by yourself.
TAMARA:We all got to experience some really incredible moments in this race. You know, we had our our first mountains, our first state lines, our first start lines, our last finish lines. And speaking of those aces, our first ace. So, Audrey, would you like to talk to the audience about what that meant to the team and how it happened?
AUDREY:Yeah, getting our first ace, it definitely took uh a lot of frustration and a lot of a lot of just figuring stuff out. Definitely on my part, you know, because it's it's tough looking at the directions and the math that you have to do. It's it's totally different than anything I've ever seen. So it took me, you know, every bit of those like nine days or whatever it was to figure out what was going on. We got it on our last day. Yeah, definitely, definitely just figuring stuff out.
CHRISTINA:One thing to to toot Audrey's horn, yeah, what you guys don't understand is that when we first started driving the car, we were driving it as if it would drive normal, right? We didn't have the air shock issue and worrying about the whole bottom end of the car like taking out the tires. So we, you know, Audrey was doing all of her math based on how the car should run and how we were being taught via the competitors, um, okay, this is how you take stops, this is how you take turns. So Audrey was doing all of her math that way. And as we went figuring out, like, oh, we have to take these turns really, really, really slow to make sure that we can actually make it to the finish line. So Audrey, on that last day, her math had to, like, we were going like very slow around those turns. So all of her math in order to get that ace on the last day, she calculated all of that in. Um, and we were just we were all caught off guard with that because I think some things were off like the day before, like it was a lot going on. So, like Audrey like really crushed in. Yeah, she killed us.
ANNIE:Well, and all nine days, honestly. Or the days that she navigated, you didn't navigate all days, but I like the impression I came away with that was that navigating was way harder than having to drive. So she did an excellent job, and you were only 16 at the time, 17? 16, yeah. So, I mean, honestly, like, can you imagine? It was just like she killed it.
AUDREY:Yeah, well, thank you.
TAMARA:Amazing, and you're having to communicate with so many different people. As far as the drivers that we're swapping out nonstop. And then again, dealing with the actual car itself. So, Audrey, like kudos for those of you that listened to her episode. It is the morning that she then will go on to ace with the team afterwards. So it's a pretty insightful one to listen to, knowing that and having that in mind. Now, the team, through all of the trials and tribulations, again, not having a running vehicle 48 hours before the race, having to wrench on it, work on it every single night, swapping out 10 different racers, different navigators, having to go through all these trials and tribulations of meeting for the first time, learning to communicate. The team still left with an award. So who would like to tell the audience about the award and what it meant?
ASHLEY:That was just made for us. It was called the Never Say Die Award. And that that was pretty, pretty true to us. I mean, we never we never gave up on it. I mean, it broke down almost every day, it felt like, and we just all right, let's fix it, let's get it back on the road. We're not gonna let I mean to finish is to win. So we had to just do it.
ANNIE:And so well, and also to that, so many people like I I saw uh at least two or three when I was out there who packed up and left because their cars weren't running right. They're like, Well, it's not running right, we're just gonna call it call it quits. But that was not us. We never once, and we were like, I know the day that you showed up, Tamara, was that day that we were in the cemetery, and we were like at our lowest, I think, but we were still all out there just hopeful, hopeful, and wanting to just work through the problems and just like determined. So that was probably the most inspiring thing was that night after night, we just didn't quit.
ASHLEY:People told us that a lot, like lots of different people said, Man, I love seeing all you guys never quit. You even pushed your car through the line, you know, like all this stuff. I mean, it was noticed by other people too. People noticed very special.
CHRISTINA:Well, and especially since we're content creators and like there were people that were following the race, that were watching our content, and then finding us on stops, and then go, oh, we saw that you had these struggles and whatever. Oh, it's so great. And we missed some of the stops that we had people that were specifically there waiting for us, and then they saw what happened on social media and would reach out and go, Oh, that's such a bummer. But like, we're so glad you made it to the next stop.
ANNIE:We had people bringing us food and lunch and like drinks, and yeah, it was fantastic.
CHRISTINA:Yeah, it was it was really cool, like all of that together with with bringing other people into our journey with us because of our ability to put out content, not just people that were attending, like as racers, but like the people that would come to the stops to see us. It was really cool to like I feel like that they probably felt like they got that award a little bit with us because they were following along with our journey, team efforts for sure.
TAMARA:And I'll say that speaking to that community piece of it and not just the audience that was there, but also the volunteer squad for the great race, like the fact that they would come up with the tow truck and we'd be like, give it, wait, wait, how late? How long? How long can you give us until we absolutely have to get on that track? How late will you let us keep trying? And they were just so incredible about being willing to like jump in and help. And again, to the point of us being part of the rookie team, them knowing that we were not fighting for a podium, we were just fighting to keep going and stay in it. They were just so giving to us with regards to chances. And I think that that to me was one of the biggest selling points for anyone that's new that's thinking about doing a road rally race. This community just was so inviting and so engaging. I just I don't know. I don't know that we would have gotten that reception somewhere else. You know, haven't done another one, I would do this one again. What do you guys think? Having done this one, would you do it again? And would you what vehicle would you take if you didn't get to take the fair lane?
ANNIE:I'm gonna start because I already know I want to take my Volkswagen. I would I would just die and go to heaven if I could drive my low Volkswagen across America. And that's why I was asking all the Volkswagen people now. How are you doing this? How are you keeping it cool? Because I'm just thinking, I'm like, I have to come back. So my answer is absolutely 100%. I would come back, and I want to take my Volkswagen because that would just be the the opportunity and the time of a lifetime. So that's my answer.
AUDREY:Yeah, I would definitely love to go back and do the great race again. Um, I think I would probably take like a 60s Mustang. Um and and absolutely there was a lot of them on the race, and uh yeah, they just look so good. They do.
ASHLEY:I would absolutely do this again. I it's one of my favorite motor sports now. I mean, it's just I love the the technical stuff, the precision, how accurate you have to be, and just the whole organization part of it. Like I love that for a car. I don't gosh, I know it wouldn't be as practical, but I'm thinking some kind of station wagon to do it. And try and see how oh yeah, I just some kind of station wagon, maybe fifties because you don't see those there very much, so it would like it would like yeah, I would I would love that.
CHRISTINA:And that's your vibe too.
ANNIE:That's Ashley's vibe, yeah.
CHRISTINA:Uh for me, the gentleman that I spoke to that does like all of the organization, um it takes a lot for them. They put in a lot of effort, they talk to all the towns that you go through to make sure that everything's okay. And for you guys that don't know much about the great race, we are not on a track. We are on public roads. So not only do they need to organize it around these small towns, get permission from these small towns, get permission from the local uh government, um, and track all of those things in order to make sure that the race runs smoothly and that we're not like upsetting people as we're taking on this race. So just that on its own uh takes its own work in my in my mind. And I would go back just to participate in it because you can tell all the time and effort and care that they put into it. It ran so well. Um, and as of cars, like I I'm a sucker for the 69 Camaro. I would not want to take my personal one because that has a lot of sentimental value from being a car that it's my father-daughter car. Uh, that I just I want to keep that to myself a little bit and not put it through that type of environment, maybe maybe after I drive it for a while. But I definitely would love to do a 69 Camaro uh on the race.
TAMARA:Amazing. It was such a great adventure overall, and you all are together right now working with Riley's Rebuild to get the fair lane ready for SEMA. So for everyone listening, if you are gonna be at SEMA, make sure to go by, stop, say hi to everyone, meet the team. They're gonna love it. But this has been such an amazing adventure. It was so great meeting you all.
TAMARA:You know, the Hemmings Great Race kicked off June 21st in St. Paul, Minnesota, and we ran it all the way down to the finish line in Moore Park, South Carolina. So please, audience, head to Instagram, head to YouTube, head to all of the places. The links are on the bio. Follow the full adventure and see what all of these incredible creator race technical trades women were up to because it was an iconic vintage rally race and we covered it one mile at a time. Thank you, ladies, so much for the time today. I can't wait to see you guys.
ANNIE:So good to see you.
TAMARA:I want to thank you for choosing Tinkering Bells as your user's manual for all things maker on a bi weekly basis. If you want to continue to hear more, don't forget to rate and review the show on your podcasting app of choice as well as sharing it with your friends. I look forward to seeing you next week. Until then, don't forget to keep making