[Hemmings Great Race]
Eight days back, roughly 120 antique cars left Springfield, Illinois, and aimed down Historic Route 66 — eight states, some 2,300 miles, and not a GPS unit among them. This afternoon they cross the line in front of Pasadena City Hall, the last stop in the Hemmings Great Race.
It’s a precision rally, not a speed run: think golf, where the lowest score wins and a single second early or late at a secret checkpoint costs you. The field skews gloriously old — a 1913 Chevrolet, a 1916 Hudson, a 1918 American LaFrance, every one built in 1974 or earlier, with teams in from Japan, England, and points across the U.S. The overall winner drives off with $50,000. You get in for nothing.
What you’re watching took some doing. Every morning for nine days, each driver-and-navigator pair got fresh turn-by-turn instructions and had to hit exact times with nothing but a calibrated speedometer and a stopwatch. The oldest cars run on original factory parts and pre-war engineering. There’s even an X-Cup division for high school teams learning engineering, mechanics, and navigation — half competition, half classroom on wheels. Yesterday the field was in San Bernardino. Today it’s yours.
There’s a reason the route ends here and not, say, at the beach. Route 66 turns 100 this year. The Mother Road was strung from Chicago to Santa Monica back in November 1926, and the 2026 race chases it west across eight states to the finish at City Hall. The building itself went up in 1927, by the San Francisco firm Bakewell and Brown, and it happens to sit roughly two blocks north of where that old highway still runs as Colorado Boulevard.
Pick your spot well. City Hall is the Mediterranean Revival landmark with the courtyard fountain and the six-story dome carrying the skyline — keep an eye out for the lion’s-head cartouche while you’re there. Park near the front steps and you’ll get the cars, the architecture, and the shade in one frame. Bring a hat anyway; this is foothill June.
Wander over by 1:15 p.m., stay till the cars roll out at 4, and bring someone who still thinks a Sunday should have a finish line.
100 N. Garfield Ave., Pasadena. Sunday, June 28, ceremony at 1:15 p.m., cars on view until 4 p.m. Free.
https://www.visitpasadena.com/events/the-hemmings-great-race/
