The 30th running of the Great Race is this Saturday
Race organizer Jack Potucek looks over the route of the Great Race. This will be his 30th race in Wellington this Saturday. (Click to enlarge)
The 2021 Great Race lineup. (Click to enlarge)
by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The weather forecast for this weekend is hot 100 degrees for the running of the 2021 Great Race in Wellington.
“We’ve been there before,” said Jack Potucek, the Wellington Great Race organizer. “The first three years when we had it at the Depot it was 110 degrees on the Fourth of July.”
Eight teams will be competing in the 30th running of the 9.5-mile race that is set to begin at 5 p.m. Saturday.
The Dore Enchies will be trying to make it three in a row as the reigning champions. They won it in 2019 in 44 minutes and 58 seconds. 2020, of course, we were in the thralls of the pandemic and didn’t have a race.
Blaine Zeka drinks out of the Great Race Watson Cup after The Dore Enchies big victory in 2018. They would go on to do it again in 2019.
The Enchies won by over a minute, with the Manilla Gorillas finishing second at 48.16. The course record? The Commodore Enchies set it in 2012 with a 42:03 time.
This year’s teams includes The Dore Enchies, Manilla Gorillas, SSB Big Bucks, Axis of Awesome, Impact Bank Dashing Dukes, Black Oak Striders, Greeno Flameouts, Doo-Dah Flying Circus, and Raging Rhabdos. There were nine teams but the Black Oak Striders had to cancel at the last minute.
“This was a bummer because the Black Oak Striders are the only team that had run all 29 races before this year,” Potucek said. “We hope to see them again next year.”
The Great Race started in 1977 at the Slate Creek Depot and had a six-year run at the supper club west of Wellington. It ended in 1982 after the Depot burned down. It then was held from 1983 to 1986 at the Depot site with a party thereafter at the Elks Club.
There were no races thereafter from 1987 to 2001 until the Wellington Area Chamber of Commerce asked Potucek to revive the race again. It moved to Woods Park and it has been there ever since.
“We have basically kept the course the same since moving it to Woods Park,” Potucek said.
The race starts with a 360 sprint, followed by the 3/4 mile, the X-Country, motocross, desert highway, horse race, racing bike, one mile, another one mile, canoe #1, canoe #2, half-mile, and finishing off with the 360 sprint.
For 40 years, the Great Race has had some exciting moments. None more than the 2016 photo finish.
Usually, this race is pretty much over by the final 360 sprint. But there are exceptions. The 2016 race ended in a virtual tie with Anders Spinalators eking out a victory over The Dore Enchies.
Here are a few other well-known facts:
• The race course started in Woods Park (Harvey Street) in 2001.
• Race course moved to “South Park” in 2002.
• Race course was “tweeked” a couple of times until 2007.
• Race course has remained the same from 2008 to present .
• Jack has been the Racemaster every year.
• Black Oak Striders have been in every race (until this year).
• Teams come from Oxford, Derby, Wichita, South Haven, Caldwell, Potwin, Hunnewell, Winfield, Mayfield and Wellington.
• 2015 is the 25th race run.
