Collector cars put on display as Great Race makes pit stop in Pueblo

A time, speed and endurance rally for older collector vehicles that’s taken place in the United States since 1983 rolled through Pueblo over the weekend, as the 2023 Hemmings Motor News Great Race made a pit stop in the Home of Heroes.

This year’s race — an annual tradition started in 1983 by Tom McRae, which takes its name from the 1965 movie “The Great Race” — began June 24 in St. Augustine, Florida.

The 125 teams competing in this year’s race came from Japan, Australia, Canada, England and “every corner of the United States,” race officials said in a news release. Before reaching its final destination of Colorado Springs on Sunday, the race stopped Saturday at the Pueblo Union Depot, where spectators lined B Street to get a glimpse of the impressive custom cars, all of which were manufactured in 1974 or before.

A 1916 Hudson Pikes Peak Hillclimber, a 1916 Chevrolet and a 1917 American LaFrance were the oldest cars scheduled to be in this year’s event, race officials said.

The basic idea of the Great Race is for competitors to accomplish the day’s route as closely as possible to the Rally master’s perfectly scored time. The team that’s closest to the perfect time wins their racing division. The event stretches across 2,300 miles over nine days.

Each stop on the Great Race was free to the public and spectators.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: National Great Race makes pit stop in Pueblo