Revved up for ‘Great Race’ redux
Bill Erickson, a self-professed “gear head,” has repaired and restored vintage cars for more than 30 years. He’s been racing them for the last six.
He’s driven a restored Fiat V-8 convertible roadster in a 1,000-mile Italian road rally and steered a fortified 1954 Ford Crown Victoria on a 1,900-mile romp through Mexico’s open roads.
But now the Ojai resident is preparing for his most daunting challenge: a once-in-a-lifetime trek from Beijing to Paris, a 7,590-mile journey of vintage vehicles through China, the Gobi Desert, Russia and Europe.
Erickson is among more than 130 entrants in the big race, which starts Sunday at the Great Wall near Beijing and ends June 30 -- five weeks later -- in the City of Light.
Erickson, 56, will drive a 1925 Buick pickup that he spent nine months restoring.
“This is more of an endurance rally,” he said. “It will involve crossing several rivers without bridges.”
The 35-day Peking to Paris Motor Challenge will include several days of rest after eight- to 12-hour days behind the wheel.
Overnight accommodations will range from hotels to more spartan facilities. For example, Erickson said, the four nights of travel through Mongolia will mean staying in yurts.
“It’s just like Moses and the Israelites,” he said. “They cater the food out to us there, and there’ll be a tanker with fuel that we’ve already purchased ahead of time.”
Rather than emphasize speed above all else, this road rally will concentrate on the precision of two-person teams as they attempt to travel between designated points on the course as close as possible to predetermined times.
Erickson said the organizers have divided entrants into three categories.
He and his driving partner, friend Steve Dole, 68, are in a group that includes vehicles made from 1922 to 1941.
The men met years ago, when Erickson first worked on some classic cars owned by Dole.
Since then, Dole moved from Westlake Village to Pacific Grove, Calif., but they remain friends. Both entered the 2003 Mexican road race, although in separate vehicles.
But when Erickson called Dole last summer to ask if he wanted to team up for the centennial running of “The Great Race” -- run only one other time since the original 1907 contest -- he initially said no.
“That’s back to when I was in my right mind,” said Dole, a retired United Airlines pilot.
Within a day, he recanted. And with an important entry deadline looming, the men bought the Buick pickup sight unseen on EBay for $14,000.
Turns out that was the least expensive portion of the undertaking. The organizing group in England requires an entry fee equivalent to $75,000, and Erickson estimates that he and Dole have collectively tapped their savings in the six-figure range to get the pickup, and themselves, prepared to tackle the arduous trip.
“I have a comfortable pension, but it doesn’t even hold a candle to what these guys can do,” said Dole, adding that another friend who helped persuade him to enter warned him that many of the race competitors are extremely wealthy.
“Man, is that an understatement,” Dole said. “If not for the rules against it, some of these people would have private planes follow them with nothing but spare parts aboard.”
Ojai cinematographer Geoff Zimmerman, who plans to film the road rally as a documentary, said the teammates’ personal commitment is what makes it such a compelling story.
“This is their nickel,” he said. “That’s what makes it great, the American dream.”
Zimmerman’s company has established a website -- www.dvcamps.com/pekingtoparis -- where the public can learn about the race and follow Erickson and Dole’s progress.
They have dubbed themselves Team Yakity Yak after the farm animals they will encounter in Mongolia.
Neither man expects to make the best time or place highest in their vehicle classifications. But they say that’s not the point.
“The trick with a race like this is to have a lot of fun and bring back your vintage automobile, hopefully in one piece,” Erickson said.
Dole already considers himself a winner just by participating.
“I tell you,” he said, “once I do this thing, I will never run out of conversation at cocktail parties.”
