Positive Traction: Hemmings Motor News Great Race departs Marietta but leaves impact (2024)

A 1970 Porsche Speedster awaits its driver Monday morning in Marietta for the next phase of the Great Race. (Photo by Michelle Dillon)

MARIETTA — Drivers, navigators, crew members and staff of the Great Race departed Marietta Monday morning, but they left behind an impact felt by area businesses and took with them an appreciation of the city.

On Sunday, 140 teams driving antique cars, and a few motorcycles and trucks, rolled into Marietta around 4 p.m. as part of the 2024 Hemmings Motor News Great Race, a 2,300-mile, nine-day race that started in Owensboro, Ky., and will end in Gardiner, Maine, on June 30 during which teams travel through 11 states and 19 cities to compete based on accuracy of time and speed on a predetermined course for a total of $160,000 in prizes, with the grand champion prize being $50,000.

Sunday offered an opportunity for spectators to see the cars while they were on display at 7:30 p.m. and to enjoy more than 660 race cars, sports cars, hot rods and more during the Motorsports Show that ran throughout the day. Children also had the chance for fun at the Memorial Health Systems with Akron Children’s Hospital free Kids Zone, which included a petting zoo, magician, face painting, balloon art, caricature drawings and Kona Ice.

Teams left area hotels around 8 a.m. Monday morning to get to the starting line for the next phase of the Great Race, which took them to Morgantown, W.Va., Monday afternoon.

Monday morning, Sam Burg from California and Adrian Stevens from England who make up Great Race team 9, were preparing their vehicle to leave in their hotel parking lot. They are driving a 1912 Haynes Model 20 in the Great Race, and according to Burg, it is the oldest vehicle in the race.

Bob Zeolla, left, and other crew members for Great Race Team 37 prepare a 1934 Indian 402 motorcycle on Monday morning for Andrea LaBarbra, center, to ride in the next phase of the Great Race. LaBarbra is one of the only female drivers in the Great Race, according to Zeolla. (Photo by Michelle Dillon)

Burg said that the race is going good so far.

“We didn’t get too wet yesterday.” he said, referencing a rain storm that occurred Sunday evening.

Burg said Marietta is “a beautiful town” and that he and Stevens wished they’d had more time to spend in the city.

Oklahoma City resident Chip Fudge is part of Great Race team 22. The team is driving a 1972 Maserati Ghibli Spyder in the race. Fudge said the Spyder is the newest vehicle participating in the Great Race and there were only 25 of this vehicle ever made.

“The race is going great,” Fudge said.

Two teams participating in the Great Race drive away from their hotel in Marietta Monday morning to get to the starting line for the next phase of the Great Race. (Photo by Michelle Dillon)

He said the team is having “a lovely drive” and the experience is “awesome.”

He also said he and his teammate walked to a restaurant near their hotel on Pike Street and while he didn’t see much of Marietta he “loves it.”

Bob Zoella, from Foxborough, Mass., was getting a red motorcycle ready to drive Monday morning. He is one of the crew associated with Great Race team 37.

Zoella said his wife Andra LaBarbra is driving the motorcycle, a 1934 Indian 402, and is one of the only female drivers competing in the Great Race and the team’s motorcycle is only one of two motorcycles in the race.

Zoella said he saw a large crowd waiting for the cars in the Great Race on Sunday.

Sam Burg, a member of Grace Race team 9, reviews paperwork Monday morning in preparation to leave Marietta to get the starting line for the next phase of the Great Race. Team 9 is driving a 1912 Haynes Model 20, which is the oldest car in the race according to Burg. (Photo by Michelle Dillon)

“It must’ve been a couple thousand (people), easy,” he said. “It was packed.”

Marietta-Washington County Convention & Visitors Bureau Executive Director Deana Clark stood along with other members of the CVB bright and early Monday morning near a road leading away from several hotels in which Great Race teams, crew and staff stayed.

She and the CVB members offered departing racers words of encouragement and bottles of water.

According to Clark, the CVB does not have the final count yet of attendees or of the economic impact from the race. She was able to provide general information, stating there were about 350 hotel rooms booked just for the Great Race teams and staff.

“We worked really hard to bring visitors to our area,” she said and the CVB worked to promote events happening on Saturday and Sunday, both for the Great Race and unrelated events.

A flag hangs from a crane on Front Street Sunday during the Great Race in Marietta. (Photo by Art Smith)

Clark said she is thankful that the rain held off until about the last hour of the event on Sunday.

“I think the threat of rain hurt us a very little,” she said.

According to Clark, though it is hard to tell how many people came to Marietta to see the Great Race, she thinks about 7,000 people showed up from all over Ohio, West Virginia and beyond.

Teri Ann’s is a business that sells clothing and other items on Front Street in Marietta.

“We were thrilled with the entire weekend,” owner Terri Ann Brockett said. “We had a nice amount of traffic and we were just happy to participate.”

Brockett believes the long term benefits of the Great Race coming to Marietatt “will resound through town for years to come.”

She said people who had a good time in Marietta will talk to their friends and people will put Marietta on their travel plans.

“That’s immeasurable to me.”

According to Brockett, she put out 25 chairs outside her store and served people who sat there to watch the Great Race lemon ice water.

“It seemed like the hospitable thing to do.”

Austyn’s is a restaurant on Front Street. Owner Phi Chen said he was not able to reap the benefits of the Great Race because he is closed on Sunday. He said the CVB asked for the restaurant to be open on Sunday, but it was too short of a notice to do so.

The restaurant was open on Saturday according to Chen. He said that the Great Race did not have much impact on his restaurant.

“The only impact (was) when (they) blocked the street on Saturday,” he said.

He said he heard some complaints from customers about having to park farther away from the restaurant.

Dusty DeLancey, the front office manager of the Fairfield Inn and Suites on Pike Street said the hotel was sold out for Sunday and Monday and that a vast majority of the 164 rooms that were filled was because of the Great Race.

“It’s been wonderful, the business it’s brought to Marietta,” DeLancey said.

She said the hotel made more money than they usually do because of the Great Race and she “absolutely” wants to see more events like it in Marietta.

“Any time something like that comes to Marietta it’s great for the area for sure,” she said.

Michelle Dillon can be reached at mdillon@newsandsentinel.com