The Hemmings Branson Vintage Rally

BRANSON — Vintage car rallies have long been a labor of love for Rex and Judy Gardner but now they’re rallying for the love of their autistic grandson, Justyce.  Justyce and his mom, Tonia Gardner, live in Kansas City.

 Gardner, now of Grove, Okla., but formerly of Stilwell, is a two-time champion of the Great Race rally for old cars. Last fall, Gardner and friends held a low-key vintage car rally around Grove to raise money for autism awareness. The three-day event garnered $20,000 for the Autism Society of America and Unlocking Autism. The Vintage Car Rally Association was born.

 After the Grove rally, Jim Cox, owner of the Branson Collector Car Auction, convinced Gardner to hold a five-day event in Branson. The inaugural running of the Branson Vintage Rally was June 11-15. Major sponsors included Hemmings Motor News, Stormy Point Village and Champion Oil. All proceeds went to autism awareness. Gardner and Cox said they hope to make the rally an annual affair.

 A vintage car rally is a time, speed and distance event wherein drivers negotiate a prescribed route at average speeds that usually range between 15 and 45 miles per hour. Secret checkpoints record the rallyists’ accuracy to the second. This rally consisted of daily loops that began and ended at the Hilton Hotel in the Branson Landing. Forty-two cars entered.

 Dick Burdick of San Marcos, Texas, said he enjoyed the rally’s relaxed format because it was similar to the earliest days of the Great Race. Burdick and his navigator, Wayne Bell, have been multiple Great Race champions. 

 G.R. Pike and Bobby Hadskey of Searcy, Ark., drove their 1916 Hudson racer to first in the Gold Cup division. Bill and Dan Loubiere from Plano, Texas, won the Silver Cup division. The total prize money was $50,000.

 While a vintage car rally is, first and foremost, a competition, it is essentially a moveable feast of four-wheeled proportions that celebrates the simplicity and beauty of old cars by taking them out of the museum and putting them on the road, on the move, as they were meant to be.

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Jim Menneto, left, publisher of Hemmings Motor News, drove a 1934 Dodge.