We went down to the banquet this evening full of nerves and excitement. Marilyn Wilson (the president of the ARC) gave out the awards after dinner. Minnetta and Charissa got the Ambassador award for being the only team to fly the entire race route including the cancelled legs (in IFR). The collegiate challenge trophy was given out also. Then, they start on the leg prizes. There are four leg prizes for each leg of the race. The only racers who are eligible for leg prizes are teams who did not make the top ten - we already knew that we were one of the few teams to get a positive score on leg 2 - so therefore, we knew that we'd be highly likely to win a leg prize for that leg - unless we were top ten. Marolyn read out the leg prizes in race number order, and team 21 wasn't called at all! So at this point we knew we'd either won nothing at all, or were top ten.
As it turned out, we got 9th place!!! We were thrilled and delighted. Linda, Barbara and I were called up to receive beautiful and huge medals on red ribbons, and have our photos taken. We're tired and a bit overwhelmed right now, this is a better result than we could ever have hoped for (although from the beginning Barbara did say that we'd come in at number 9!).
So, to summarize the results, 50 teams registered for the race. 2 scratched before the start, and another 4 withdrew during the race due to weather and other issues. One team didn't complete due to maintenance issues which was such a shame. This left 43 teams jn the running. The top two places were taken by collegiate teams (Jacksonville and Illinois respectively), and third place was Joyce Wilson and Rebecca Hempel. Our friend Camelia Smith from Arkansas and her partner Julia Matthews came fourth. Debi Dreyfuss team from the MidAtlantic section were sixth. Mother-daughter team Susan and Marie Carastro came seventh. We were ninth (yay!!!), and our friend Ljn Caywood and her partner Susan Beall also from the MidAtlantic section we're tenth.
Now we have to sleep (we'll probably wear our medals over our pjs!), and tomorrow we plan to fly back to Doylestown via Chattanooga and Blacksburg. Before we leave, we have to get the spinner replaced on the airplane because ours is cracked. Fortunately our home mechanic Kent Heller worked all morning on Friday to locate a replacement spinner somewhere in Wichita that was shipped to the mechanic here on Saturday. Should only take twenty minutes to install.
Here are some thank yous from team Cool Beans:
Our mechanic Kent Heller for his work on the plane, including finding us a replacement spinner at short notice.
Steve Graves and Karen Wunch for the wonderful and unique breast cancer decals as well as our number decals.
Vern Conly for being such an awesome source of advice on the paperwork and maintenance of the plane both before and after the race.
The staff at Bose for going out of their way to get me a replacement headset in time for the race start.
Michael Norris and Josh at El Dorado for all their help with our spinner issue.
Josh and Kelly at Iowa City airport for all their help with our battery and alternator noise filter issues.
I'm sure there are many more, but that's it for now. Good night from #9!!
