Branson, Mo.--Old-car fans will get to see many of their favorite vintage and classic cars on the road June 11-15 when the Vintage Car Rally Association presents the inaugural Hemmings Branson Vintage Rally.
     Sponsored by Hemmings Motor News, the rally will feature pre-1949 cars, said Rex Gardner, director of the Vintage Car Rally Association (VCRA). It will be organized as a five-day, cloverleaf-style time-speed-distance (TSD) event in which teams will rely only on their speedometers to calculate their progress along the rally's daily routes. As with most TSD rallies, the goal for teams will be to arrive at checkpoints along the route exactly on time.
     Formerly the market development manager for CARQUEST, Gardner is a longtime car guy, motorsports enthusiast, and Great Race veteran. In the Great Race, he has competed regularly in a 1917 Hudson Indy speedster with navigator Gary Kuck of Lincoln, Neb. In 1998-99, the pair won back-to-back championships in the annual transcontinental contest.
     After retiring from CARQUEST in 2005, Gardner said he and two colleagues---Vic Thompson and Charlie McKinney--founded the Vintage Car Rally Association out of a desire to re-emphasize the old-car aspect of historic rallying.
     "We really like old cars," Gardner said. "For three or four years we had discussed the idea of organizing an event that focused on the cars that originally ran the Great Race, cars from the 1920s and 1930s, and sometimes earlier. The rules for many events today are encouraging cars from the 1950s and 1960s, and that is changing the character of the sport. We don't see many of the really rare old cars that we used to see. We want to bring them back and give them an event they can run."
Gardner said the VCRA's first event was the Mid-America All-Star Rally and Benefit for Autism Awareness in September in Grove, Okla. He said the charity event was well received, and as a result, he and his colleagues began work on the Branson rally.
     For enthusiasts who like to drive their cars, the rally is a great Midwestern opportunity, said Arthur Alvis, a Great Race veteran and an old-car fan from Wichita, Kan. "When I heard about the Hemmings Branson Rally, I thought, 'Wow! This is the vintage-car rally trifecta. A great sponsor like Hemmings, putting on the race in a fun place like Branson, organized by one of the undisputed masters of vintage-car rallying, Rex Gardner--sign me up!'"
     Alvis said he and his son, Elliott, will run the rally in their 1936 Ford convertible, complete with mechanical brakes, six-volt electrical system, stock drive train, and bias-ply tires.
     The headquarters for the Hemmings Branson Vintage Rally is the Hilton Promenade in Branson. The rally will also visit cities such as Clinton and Lebanon, Mo., during its five-day run. The field for the rally is limited to 75 cars.
For more information about the rally, visit www.vintagecarrally.com. Information about the rally may also be found at Hemmings.com.