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Turkey Tail, by Vanaprastha Sciorra

Alfred State will host the “Great Race” at Wellsville campus on June 20

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Alfred State’s entry in the 2019 Great Race drives through the arch in Eureka, CA.

Alfred State College’s School of Applied Technology in Wellsville will host a lunch stop on the 2022 Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Hagerty Drivers Club on Monday, June 20.

Race teams will be stopping for lunch at the ASC Culinary Dining room starting at 12:30 p.m. with the last group of cars scheduled to leave around 3:30 p.m. Teams are spread out coming and leaving throughout the afternoon.

Race teams will be coming into Wellsville on Rte. 417 turning south on Rte. 19. They will turn right on to Weidrick Rd, turning right on the River Road and right onto the Wellsville Alfred State Campus.  They will be departing traveling down River Road through South and North Brooklyn Avenue through to Chamberlain, turning right on Seneca to North Highland Ave. to the traffic light at the corner of North Highland and Rte. 417, turning left on Rte. 417 (Bolivar Road).

There is no cost to come view the cars and to visit with the participants. It is common for kids to climb in the cars for a first-hand look.

In addition to the Great Race, local car clubs will have vehicles parked for viewing and local food trucks, including Alfred State’s “Feast Beast” will be in attendance. The Wellsville Chamber of Commerce will also have a presence highlighting the local charm of Wellsville.

Automotive professor Mike Ronan is excited about the event. “Alfred State College and the Village of Wellsville are happy to welcome the wonderful people that are competing in the 2022 Great Race. Automotive students from the college have gained a reputation for assisting competitors with their vehicles in every year that we have competed.”

The Great race, the world’s premier old car rally, will bring 130 of the world’s finest antique automobiles to the college. The event starts on June 18 in Warwick, RI and will finish on June 26 in Fargo, ND.

The nine-day, 2,300-mile adventure will travel to nineteen cities in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota. Teams and cars from every corner of the United States, Australia, Canada, England, Germany, and Japan will compete with vintage automobiles dating back as far as 1916. A 1916 Hudson Pikes Peak Hillclimber, a 1917 American LaFrance, and a 1917 Peerless racer are the oldest cars scheduled to be in the 2022 race. Cars built in 1974 and earlier eligible to enter.

“We are excited to bring this unique event to Alfred State because one of our all-time favorite X-Cup teams is from the school,” race director Jeff Stumb said. “It will also mark the first time the Great Race has been to Wellsville since 1994.”

The Great Race, which began 39 years ago, is not a speed race, but a time/speed/distance rally. The vehicles, each with a driver and a navigator, are given precise instructions each day that detail every move down to the second. They are scored at secret check points along the way and penalized one second for each second either early or late. The lowest score wins the race.

In 2021, a 1932 Ford won the event as the course traveled from San Antonio, TX to Greenville, SC. Over the decades, the Great Race has stopped in hundreds of cities big and small.

Started in 1983 by Tom McRae it takes its name from the 1965 movie, The Great Race, which starred Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Natalie Wood, and Peter Falk. The movie is a comedy based on the real life 1908 automobile race from New York to Paris. In 2004, Tony Curtis was the guest of the Great Race and rode in his car from the movie, the Leslie Special.

For more information on the Great Race visit: www.greatrace.com

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