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Carolina Trophy rally brings classic cars to Dillsboro
By Justin Goble
Dillsboro residents got a firsthand look at more than $10.5 million worth of classic cars when the second annual Carolina Trophy road rally made a local stop Friday morning (Sept. 8).
Front Street was lined with 31 vintage cars, including Ferraris, Porsches and Aston Martins, for more than an hour. Residents were able to take pictures with their favorite cars, and drivers were all too willing to talk with them.
Starting out in Dillsboro, Friday’s route included a trip through the mountains of Western North Carolina and Tennessee before heading back to Asheville’s Grove Park Inn, which served as the rally’s home base.
Jim Watson’s Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato, valued at more than $3 million, leads 31 vintage cars off of Dillsboro’s Front Street Friday morning (Sept. 8) as part of the Carolina Trophy road rally. Automobiles lined the street for about an hour before starting the day’s competition, which was a route through the western mountains of North Carolina and parts of Tennessee. In its second year, Carolina Trophy is the first North American event of its kind that caters specifically to vintage cars; those entered must be manufactured before Dec. 31, 1973. – Herald photo by Nick Breedlove.
Carolina Trophy is the first event of its kind in North America that caters specifically to vintage cars. Though a few exceptions are made for vehicles of “special interest,” cars taking part in the rally had to have been manufactured before Dec. 31, 1973.
While awards are given to the top finishers, the rally relies more on navigation than on speed. Each morning, instead of a map, drivers and navigators are given a book of clues to guide them through the day’s route. Officials mark how long it takes for every car to finish the day’s course, and tally up times to determine the overall winner.
Along with the road rally stages, the event also included closed-course time trials, where each car traverses a track and tries to duplicate previous lap times.
Despite what some would consider a focus on competition, Carolina Trophy organizers said the goal is for drivers have a good time while enjoying amazing pieces of automotive history.
“It’s been a wonderful amount of fun,” said Carolina Trophy founder Paul Misenchik of this year’s rally. “Despite being an automotive event, the rally is really about people. The drivers get together and have a great time.”
“The driving is fun, but the best part is meeting the other drivers,” said Asheville driver Tim Gallagher, who was piloting a Ferrari 365. “You form friendships with people all over the country, if not the world, because we’ve got drivers from Canada, Costa Rica and Holland. It’s great to meet the people at the places we stop as well.”
Misenchik said he chose Dillsboro as the starting point for day three because the town fits well with the mindset behind the event.
“Dillsboro is just an appropriate choice for this event,” Misenchik said. “This is a vintage-oriented event, and Dillsboro has that charm of a lot of old Western North Carolina towns. It really is just perfect.”
According to town clerk Herb Nolan, the rally is first for Dillsboro. Like Misenchik, he said the town’s “vintage” atmosphere was a perfect fit for the type of cars involved.
“We’ve had vintage cars in events like parades and such,” Nolan said. “We’ve never had cars of this value come through town. But we’re a throwback to the old mountain towns. It seems to fit really well.”
The town turned out to be a big hit with drivers as well. When not marvelling at the parked cars of the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad, crews were meeting with the local residents and sharing stories from the road. It’s things like this that brings navigator Stanley Bauer all the way from South Africa for the event.
“It has been fantastic,” Bauer said. “These have been some great roads, and the people we meet at every stop have been fantastic. We get the real car crazies to come out, and that’s always fun.”
While driving on the back roads and through rustic towns is a great way to spend four days, some of the drivers said it was hard to go by a book of clues to find their way around.
“All we can do is just follow the clues,” said Virginia driver Bruce Troxell, who sat behind the wheel of one of the “special interest” cars – a 1998 Chevrolet Corvette that once served as a pace car for the Indy 500. “It’s difficult sometimes, but it’s a lot better than spending a day at the office. The funny thing is that when I get back to work they always ask me where I went on vacation. I just have to say, ‘I don’t know!,’ and hand them the clue book.”
Speed TV sent correspondent Tom Jensen to cover the rally in a 1962 Chevrolet Corvette. In his Web log, where he details each day’s events, Jensen said travelling on day three included “some of the most beautiful mountain scenery you’ll ever see.”
To read more of Jensen’s blog, visit www.speedtv.com. For information about the event, visit www.carolinatrophy.com.
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