By Larry Walter –
The Great Lakes Mistake Rally took place from July 2-7, 2018. The route goes completely around all 5 Great Lakes.
GLMR is the first rally of this scale we’ve found that wasn’t exclusively for vintage cars and large bank accounts.
While the rally is set up for “crap cans” it’s open to anything (licensed and insured). That being said, it’s impossible to finish on the podium if you don’t solo drive a crap can, perform roadside repairs on your car, help other teams repair their car, and hit ALL the checkpoints – meaning you get almost no sleep during the rally. But as one of the organizers posted on the Lemons blog, “If you’re concerned about your score you’re in the wrong kind of rally.”
The rally is designed so the participants can tailor it to meet their personal goals. Those who want to be in contention for a win know what they need to do. For those doing it for fun all of the checkpoints are optional: you can spend extra time at points of interest, you can skip checkpoints for the sake of time or because they’re a major detour off the route you’d planned. For example the “Fargonites” (vintage Fiat 124) chose the shortest route on Day 5, skipping multiple checkpoints, because their main goal for the rally was to do a thorough tour of Niagara Falls. We chose to skip one checkpoint that day and follow the longest route because our main goal for the rally was to drive the complete perimeter of the Great Lakes.
Only 1 of the 18 entrants didn’t officially finish because the motor in their crap can self-destructed, but they still came to the awards at the end (driving a rental car). It was clear everyone was happy they’d accomplished their goal(s) for the rally and had a tremendous amount of fun in the process!
For more information on the event CLICK HERE.
THE START!
THE WINNER!