Getting Ready for the Great Race...where to start?

When it was decided to try to enter the 09 Racer in the 2019 Great Race, one of the first questions was, what needs to be done to the car to get it ready for nine days on the road, through the desert in June?  Well the most obvious place to start was new tires.  The tires on the car date to the mid 80's and are probably a two or three time veteran of the Great American Race.
 Yes, it was time for new tires.

So off they came.  Dennis Holland III, (Little Dennis) removed the tires, with guidance from Dad.  And what we had left, was a 1909 Buick Rail Car.  Well it looks like one at least.

While they are off the wheels will be replaced as well.  After 110 years of service, 5 trips across the country, three races through the Desert (and at least one fire), the time has come.

But where do you go to have wheels made for a 110 year old car?  Well the Amish of course.  So they will soon be shipped to Stutzman Wheels in Ohio to have new ones made.  And while you are at it... the suspension will be gone through, and brakes will be checked, and everything get a once over.

Of course once the car was apart it was decided we needed to take pictures and do video of the car and its Driver Dennis Holland, and Navigator Julie Holland.  But, with no wheels and the car not being movable, how will the pictures come out?  GREAT as it turns out.

 Brian Gillmore and Gillmore Studios is magic with the camera!  See more pictures and more information on the race on the website www.09racer.com 

more to come...