Jacksonville man and Florida buddy tackle 2,500-mile classic car rally in tiny Datsun
Jacksonville’s Kevin Jacobs and his 1971 Datsun 240Z will be in the thick of it for nine days with Hollywood, Fla., co-driver Gordon Garland as they head for the Illinois finish line in the 33rd annual Hemmings Motor News Great Race.
The pair are raising money for Broward County’s Down syndrome program as they rally through the summertime heat of the American West. And they sort of wish they had known that next year’s 1,200-mile Great Race will start much closer to home — Jacksonville’s Historic Main Street Cruise.
“We had to get the car from Jacksonville to California and that’s a big hurdle,” chuckled Jacobs. “When they announced that it starts in Jacksonville next year, my wife started laughing. It is kind of a foregone conclusion that we will be there next year. How can we not be?”
“We are killing ourselves to get a truck and the logistics covered to get there, and now we laugh that next year the race is out of Jacksonville,” Garland said. “We are already committed and we are going, and next year we will be in Jacksonville.”
The Great Race is a time/speed/distance rally for cars built through 1972. Teams make 200-plus turns, speed changes and stops each day on back roads, a calibrated speedometer and clock the only navigation tools allowed en route to a June 26 finish in Moline, Ill.
Garland and Jacobs are New York natives who met when they deejayed at clubs. Jacobs is now a national training manager in Jacksonville for an extended warranty company. Garland worked as a deejay for Club Med, then said he “got responsible” and is director of ambulatory services for a Broward County hospital. Both still deejay.
Jacobs bought the now 44-year-old Datsun in 2002, planning to restore it. When he heard that the 2014 Great Race’s route included an overnight stop in Jacksonville, he considered entering the 240Z.
“But it hadn’t been run,” he said. “... I started looking toward this year’s race and that’s when I got the idea with Gordon.”
Garland, whose daughter has Down syndrome, agreed to do it. Their 321 Drive4Downsyndrome team’s funding goal is $15,000.
Jacksonville’s Kevin Jacobs and his 1971 Datsun 240Z will be in the thick of it for nine days with Hollywood, Fla., co-driver Gordon Garland as they head for the Illinois finish line in the 33rd annual Hemmings Motor News Great Race.
The pair are raising money for Broward County’s Down syndrome program as they rally through the summertime heat of the American West. And they sort of wish they had known that next year’s 1,200-mile Great Race will start much closer to home — Jacksonville’s Historic Main Street Cruise.
“We had to get the car from Jacksonville to California and that’s a big hurdle,” chuckled Jacobs. “When they announced that it starts in Jacksonville next year, my wife started laughing. It is kind of a foregone conclusion that we will be there next year. How can we not be?”
“We are killing ourselves to get a truck and the logistics covered to get there, and now we laugh that next year the race is out of Jacksonville,” Garland said. “We are already committed and we are going, and next year we will be in Jacksonville.”
The Great Race is a time/speed/distance rally for cars built through 1972. Teams make 200-plus turns, speed changes and stops each day on back roads, a calibrated speedometer and clock the only navigation tools allowed en route to a June 26 finish in Moline, Ill.
Garland and Jacobs are New York natives who met when they deejayed at clubs. Jacobs is now a national training manager in Jacksonville for an extended warranty company. Garland worked as a deejay for Club Med, then said he “got responsible” and is director of ambulatory services for a Broward County hospital. Both still deejay.
Jacobs bought the now 44-year-old Datsun in 2002, planning to restore it. When he heard that the 2014 Great Race’s route included an overnight stop in Jacksonville, he considered entering the 240Z.
“But it hadn’t been run,” he said. “... I started looking toward this year’s race and that’s when I got the idea with Gordon.”
Garland, whose daughter has Down syndrome, agreed to do it. Their 321 Drive4Downsyndrome team’s funding goal is $15,000.
