The Great Race: Currie Enterprises 1910 Selden Scores Six Second Victory on Day Ten

OLDEST CAR SCORES GREAT RACE DAILY WIN

ROCK SPRINGS, WYOMING- July 5, 2005: The cornfields of Iowa and Nebraska lie behind the eighty-six teams still in the competition as they head west toward Saturday's finish in Tacoma, Washington. Today's journey from Westminster, Colorado was a very tough 375 miles up to an elevation of 10,800 then over the Continental divide before rolling into Rock Springs, Wyoming this evening.

The 1910 Selden, oldest car in the race, owned and driven by Frank Currie and navigated by his Wife Evelyn scored an unlikely victory today with a :06 second score. They did it on a course that was difficult for the newer cars in the competition, let alone one that is ninety-five years old with a driver who is seventy-six and a navigator age seventy four." "It was a tough day. Lot of steep grades, a lot of climbs & we worked the hell out of the car today," said Frank Currie, from Anaheim, California. Originally purchased for $16,000, Currie invested more than $150,000 in restoring the Selden. "Everything is machined or remanufactured," according to Currie. "Even though the crank case, transmission and rear-end housings are actually circa 1909, the car is bullet proof."

The Currie victory was for one day of the Great Race, Presented by the National Guard, the world's richest and longest running old car race. The team leading the cumulative standings for ten days of competition is Greg Cunningham and Sam Goeppinger from Ponca City Oklahoma in a 1928 Speedster. Their time of :09 increased their lead to overall 21 seconds. According navigator Sam Goeppinger, they are right on track to be in contention on the final two days of racing. "Our goal when we started was single digit day, and for the most part that is what we've achieved.

One of the most elegant looking cars on the race this year is a black 1935 Auburn Club 851 Sedan, owned and driven by Jim Schultheis and navigated by his wife, Pam. Originally a chauffeur driven sedan, the Auburn has a Lycoming engine and has proven to be reliable for the team from Melbourne, Florida. "It is Better than Packard I had last year," said Schultheis. "That car only made it half-way last year. This year I've made it twice as far."

The Great Race is a time/speed/endurance road-rally for vintage automobiles manufactured at least forty-five years ago. Often called a "seat-of-the-pants" competition, the teams of drivers and navigators attempt to follow hundreds of driving instructions each day. There are checkpoints secretly located along the race route where the cars are timed. As in golf, low score wins. Event regulations limit the teams to a speedometer, time-of-day clock, stopwatch, pencil, and paper. The competition is very real with a total cash purse of $270,000.