Day 1 Martinsburg, WV to Athens, OH
Team Mustang Girls is on the road again! This time they’re headed to Rt. 50 for Rally North America! The trip started out Saturday afternoon. After a quick stop at Impact Image Group for some last minute decals, Courtney Barber headed to the Charlotte airport to pick up teammate, Lea Anne Powell. Lea Anne’s flight was delayed and luggage lost but after an hour and a half of becoming best friends with American Airlines customer service and hearing promises of seeing the bag again in the future, the girls were off! They made it to Roanoke, Virginia around midnight and enjoyed some fancy bologna sandwiches at a Super 8.
The next morning they were up early and headed to Martinsburg, VA for the drivers meeting and laps at Summit Point Raceway. After a quick stop at a truck wash were Courtney was able to convince them to let her sneak the car in, it was off to the track. The Mustang did great! Putting to the test all of Speed Direct’s amazing suspension upgrades, Courtney adjusted the shocks and the ride felt great. A lot tighter than last year’s laps at Watkins Glen International Speedway. After playing at the track the group headed back to the hotel for the charity auction. So far over $102,000 had been raised for The Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis and after the auction that number was over $105,000!
Monday morning the City of Martinsburg welcomed all the cars to line up right downtown. The girls were late as usual but luckily out of 80 cars there were others still trickling into line as they searched for caffeine to help set the day in motion. After everyone was lined up the Budweiser girls waved the green flag and Rally Route 50 was in motion!
Well “in motion” lasted for a second anyway, long enough to grab the checkpoint card and pull over to figure out where the heck they were going next. On the card there were pictures of statues, a flagstaff, scenic overlook and an insane asylum…. this had the makings for an interesting day! The first three stops were easy enough once the girls posted the clues to the Teams Page on Facebook. Courtney is anti trivia so thanks to everyone for helping with that! Who knows where they would end up without some guidance. There may or may not have been a trail of papers left last night to help in finding the way back to the hotel room!
The next stop was the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. Courtney decided to pass on the tour. She’s had some weird experiences with ghosts and didn’t want to end up with one along for the rest of the ride. Luckily Lea Anne was excited to check it out and braved the tour with everyone else.
Then the day got interesting thanks to the good ole GPS. If you’ve ever driven on Route 18 in West Virginia you’ll appreciate this story. Let’s start with the warning from Tony at the driver’s meeting the night before. He said if your GPS tells you to go on some random country road with a lot of goats it’s not his fault. Well the girls found a lot of goats! And a family of deer, dump trucks, tractor trailers full of logs and all of this was on a 10 mile stretch of dirt road filled with pot holes and single lane bridges. The GPS went out and luckily another Mustang was behind them. Wiley still had some service in his ’89 Stang so the girls asked him to lead the way. And after a long hour on the dirt road from hell the ponies made it back to Rt. 50 and were headed to the hotel for the night in Athens, OH.
During the last 70 miles the headliner was being belligerent just like on Bullrun last month. Every gust of wind pulled it down and the metal bows smacked the girls in the head. 
Then Courtney got out a knife. One cut didn’t do it but 15 gashes later and they are hoping the problem is solved for the rest of the journey! The beer tasted great when they got to the hotel!
On day two they head to drag strip for some fun before continuing on to Indiana. If you like trivia and road trips be sure to follow along on Facebook and share your wealth of knowledge. They need it!
Team Mustang Girls would like to thank Kicker for keeping the tunes sounding great, Speed Direct for a smooth ride with Steeroids Rack and Pinion and Mustang Vector Series Suspension, Performance Plus Connection for saving the spark plugs, Scott Drake, NPD, and Impact Image Group for making the car look great, Old Air Products for keeping them cool and Badcock for keeping them looking good with comfy tanks for driving and custom Team Mustang Girl Shirts!
Day 2 Athens, OH to Mitchell, IN
After a bit of a late start Team Mustang Girls made it to the start line with the help of some strangers on the street. All they had to do was ask the question “Have you seen a bunch of cars with stickers?” They weren’t the last ones there thanks to Roadtripper’s Austin Cooper who pulled up behind them making the girls fell a little better. Don’t worry, Rally North America officials start the clock for each car when the team is handed the check points so the girls aren’t setting themselves up for failure before the day even starts. They’re just technically challenged when it comes to early morning start times.
The Team got the card and they were on the way. The first stop was a bust after trusting the internet and GPS. They were on the hunt for Native American hills and Lea Anne thought she had found some close by. But that’s the chance you have to take on a rally, sometimes it all works out and you get ahead of the pack. Instead the girls got a scenic tour of Athens which was nice too.
Next stop was the Warbird Museum in Cincinnati, OH. When they pulled up there was another car from the rally with the tire off and tools out. The Porsche had a stuck piston in the caliper. After checking out the awesomeness inside Courtney went out to see if there was any way she could help. After sharing a few tools and brake fluid they were off again and headed to the drag strip just in time to see them closing the gate. They were bummed to miss running down the track but focused on the thought that maybe it was all fate, and if they had gone down something may have broken. On that positive note they headed to the next check point.
Along the way to the “Mecca of American Signage” they found a drive thru convenience store. Some people may be familiar with these but it was a new discovery for Team Mustang Girls. You literally drive through the store, kind of like a car wash. Once inside Courtney asked how it all worked and was told “you stay in the car and tell us what you want, and we do all the bitch work!” Why aren’t there more of these in the world? So awesome!
Day 3 Bedford, IN to Jefferson City, MO
After a night off the grid at the Spring Mill Inn in Mitchell, Indiana where WiFi seems to be non existent, the cars headed to the start line for the day in Bedford, IN. Bill Tumas of CJ Pony Parts was right out front with his Mustang as one of the top fundraisers for this years charity Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis.
The night before Courtney and Lea Anne were in bed early because they wanted to take a run at placing in the top 3 the next day. Before they even got the check point card at the start line they knew where they were headed thanks to some awesome friends that shall remain nameless.
Next they figured out that checkpoint 5 was actually before 4 and saved some time from having to backtrack. They headed to Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, IL for some fun time on the track. The car handled great thanks to Speed Direct’s suspension upgrades. They were in the second group of 8 to go out on the track and had been near the back at the start line so things were looking good time wise.
But then it happened…the girls thought they had the right address for the next stop but when they plugged in into the GPS nothing came up. They decided to head to 
Rt 50 to keep heading west while they searched for checkpoint 6. Thanks to some help from Facebook friends they found the location but only to realize they had already passed by the turn off and would have to go back 30 miles to get there. They knew that would kill any chance of them placing and were bummed for a little bit. But then realized much how nicer it was to relax instead of running in and out of gas stations like crazy people!
Day 4 Jefferson City, MO to Dodge City, KS
After a fun night at a local bar in Jefferson City, MO the girls were hurting a little at the 7:30 am line up. The night before they had met Leonard, he was running for congress against his wife out of a van. Yep you read that right. He even gave the girls some Missouri band hats. Why he had a whole van of them is still unclear. But the Rally North America crew left their mark at the bar before calling it a night.
Having already been warned about Day 4 being a 500 mile hike Team Mustang Girls decided to go rogue and do their own thing for the day. Courtney wanted to test a theory on the AC and try to figure out how to make it so they could use it while driving on the highway. Here are the facts of the case. Old Air Products hooked the car up with an amazing system including a huge aluminum radiator and dual electric fans. 
The system works great in traffic and when traveling short distances or under 55 mph. But when the car gets rolling over 60 mph for more than 30 mins or so the temperature creeps up to 220.
The exact opposite of everything normal! After having the same problem on Bullrun Courtney asked around and tried to find a solution to the problem. She did a test to make sure there weren’t any cracks in the block, check the water pump, checked the fan temperature sensor- nothing was wrong. A local shop had seen a similar problem and suggested that the coolant was not staying in the radiator long enough to cool it. After some research they cut open a thermostat and welded on a washer. Basically it would be running wide open all the time but the diameter of the flow hole had been reduced for 1 inch to 5/8. This did help keep the average temperature around 200 instead of 215 which was great. And running around town wasn’t a problem with the heat but once rallying again the long distance driving brought the temperature back up again. Courtney has yet to solve them problem so any suggestions or thoughts would be great. It get’s hot on the road!
After turning on the original AC in the car, aka rolling the windows down, the girls were on the way to Dodge City. Along the way they made a few checkpoints of their own. At one point they found a cool dirt road with a bunch of cows and stopped to take some pictures. Lea Anne got distracted and started picking some flowers and the next thing they knew the cows were putting on a show that wouldn’t even be allowed at a strip club. After catching their breathe from laughing so hard the girls made the final leg to Kansas for the night and were determined to get a good night sleep to make a final run at the podium the next day.
Day 5 Dodge City, KS to Pueblo, CO
This was it! The day Team Mustang Girls was going to focus, not get distracted by sites and make a run for the podium. 
And they were last to the start line! But that was the plan. Before they had even reached the line where the time would be recorded and route card handed out they had the first clue for the checkpoint.
Several other teams that had already placed were in it to help the girls win! And they were off and running. Passing people along the way they could see the shock on other teams faces. What they heck? Was that Team Mustang Girls? Half the teams were shocked to realize the car could even go that fast!
The first check point was a memorial and cemetery dedicated to those Japanese Americans that lost their lives fighting in World War II. After reflecting on the great people who gave their lives for this country they were off to the second checkpoint to find Kit Carson’s grandson at Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site. The girls were just behind the front runners when they started the hike to the fort. After snapping the picture they got lucky. Of course they would love a golf cart ride back to the car. You can only imagine the other ralliers faces as the girls rode by right to car door on the golf cart. Gotta love having some southern charm! A smile and donation to the site goes a long way!
Then it was off to the finish line. By the time the car reached the line the temperature was running at 230 and she was not a happy camper but they were the sixth car in after leaving last!
Once there they enjoyed a frosty cold beverage and let the car rest in the shade. Later that day they were called into the organizers room. Woohoo! That only happens if you’ve placed.
The excitement was short lived when they realized they had taken a picture with the wrong monument but they were still pumped to have finished where they had for the day. Organizer Scott Spielman actually commented on how well the ladies took the news. It’s not uncommon for check points to be missed but usually the defaulted team gets mad and tries to fight it on a technicality. The girls reaction was more like, oh well we still did awesome and had a blast! No trophy could ruin the amazing week and trip across the county Courtney and Lea Anne just had, as one of the only classics on the rally, they were just happy to make it to the end! Til next year Rally North America!
The Road Home
Now it was just a short 1,700 mile ride back to South Carolina for Mustang Week. Along the way Courtney stopped at the Cadillac Ranch in Texas for the third time this summer and was welcomed by Living Legends Mustang Club in Mississippi! A great way to break up a long drive! 
Last year over $100,000 was raised for Camp Sunshine and this year the bar was raised to $108,000 for the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis. Thank you to everyone that helped to make it all happen. Including Speed Direct, Kicker, Badcock Apparel, Scott Drake, Impact Image Group, Old Air Products, Performance Plus Connection, Bert’s Market and National Parts Depot.
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