Start your engines: Marietta readies for the Great Race | News, Sports, Jobs

The 2024 Hemmings Motor News Great Race will be coming to Marietta on Sunday. The 2,300-mile race begins in Owensboro, Ky., on Saturday and ends in Gardiner, Maine, on June 30. The race occurs over nine days, 11 states and 19 cities where Marietta will be one of the stopping points. (Photo provided)

With the Great Race scheduled to make a stop in Marietta on Sunday, many downtown businesses are going to be open to show the best of what Marietta has to offer.

The 2024 Hemmings Motor News Great Race is a 2,300-mile race begins in Owensboro, Ky., on Saturday and ends in Gardiner, Maine, on June 30. The race occurs over nine days, 11 states and 19 cities where Marietta will be one of the stopping points.

The racers are expected to arrive in Marietta around 4:30 p.m. Sunday and will come across the Putnam Bridge and onto Front Street where a finish line will be set up for this leg of the race. Marietta will be the second overnight stop on the race route.

Jill Witucky, Great Race Committee member and organizer, said everything is on track for the racers to arrive on Sunday. The event will occur rain or shine.

Memorial Health Systems with Akron Children’s Hospital will hold a free Kids Zone beginning at noon on the Armory Lawn on Sunday. Plans include a petting zoo, Magician Dennis Regling, face painting with Angela’s Misfits, balloon twisters with the Twister Sisters, cartoon caricatures with J.D. Williamson and free Kona Ice for the kids.

The racers for the 2024 Hemmings Motor News Great Race will be coming into Marietta on Sunday around 4:30 p.m. and will be crossing the Putnam Bridge and turning on Front Street where the finish line for this leg of the race. The Putnam Bridge has been decked out with American flags to welcome the racers. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

There will be live music at Second and Butler streets. The Marietta High School Band will be playing as the cars arrive. Other music will be performed throughout the evening as the cars are in town.

“There will be tons of things going on downtown,” Witucky said. “Merchants are open and restaurants are open.

“There is a lot of things happening and we are expecting big things. The excitement is really building in Marietta.”

Local businesses are looking forward to the weekend as well.

Threadz Boutique on Front Street will be opening at 9 a.m. Sunday.

The racers for the 2024 Hemmings Motor News Great Race will be coming into Marietta on Sunday around 4:30 p.m. and will be crossing the Putnam Bridge and turning on Front Street where the finish line for this leg of the race. The Putnam Bridge has been decked out with American flags to welcome the racers. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

“What we are hoping is a lot of guys will bring their wives along and they will meander up and down Front Street,” said Darla Bonnette of Threadz. “In being here (almost) six years, we do know what our community does as a whole for our downtown area is they show up and always support.”

She said all of the downtown events have helped them in one way or another as well as helped the area as a whole. They have adopted a “build it and they will come” mentality about events where they want to support the other downtown businesses.

“It might not be the best day we ever had in here, but if it helps the downtown as a whole then we are in,” Bonnette said. “It takes all of us to be open and open minded to be here and support whatever is going on.”

Whit and Whimzy on Front Street has been part of the planning for this weekend for a while.

“This is a once in a lifetime event,” said owner Laura Pytlik. “It is a really big day for Marietta.”

The 2024 Hemmings Motor News Great Race will be coming to Marietta on Sunday. The 2,300-mile race begins in Owensboro, Ky., on Saturday and ends in Gardiner, Maine, on June 30. The race occurs over nine days, 11 states and 19 cities where Marietta will be one of the stopping points. (Photo provided)

This is an event that only comes to a town once in a lifetime, Pytlik said.

She is hoping people will be visiting Marietta for the first time and will want to come back and experience more.

“We are expecting thousands of people to be in downtown on a Sunday,” Pytlik said. “A lot of businesses are excited to be open and have extended hours that day. We have all been anticipating this very eagerly.”

American Flags and Poles owner Sylvi Caporale is anticipating “a spectacular weekend.”

“I expect we will get a lot of foot traffic,” he said. “Our air conditioning will be on and many people will be outside and want to take a break, they will come in and shop where it is cool.”

She and her husband Jim will have their 1932 Ford out front of their store on Front Street as well as their music machines and more while the classic car show will be happening on Second Street.

“We know there will be attractions on Front Street and there will be people who will not have as much interest in the cars who will be able to come and shop.”

Their business is also a corporate sponsor of the event. One of the focuses has been to support the local businesses and giving back to the community.

Although the racers don’t arrive until Sunday, there are events planned throughout the weekend in Marietta to capitalize on people expected to be in the area.

Washington County Convention & Visitors Bureau Executive Director Deana Clark said those events on Saturday aren’t officially part of the Great Race events, but they were scheduled then so visitors to the area could make a weekend out of it. They are being called “The Day Before the Great Race Celebrations,” she said.

Among the events planned for Saturday are a Race Luncheon Cruise from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the Major-Riviera river boat; Marietta Main Street is doing a Shop Hop event from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. which is offering exclusive deals and promotions where shoppers are entered for a chance to win the Shop Hop Basket; “Eurydice” will be performed at 7 p.m. at the Mid-Ohio Valley Players; Shai’s Summer Music Festival from 3:30-11 p.m. at the Townhouse; the Crawling for a Cure Bar Crawl hosted by the Lions Club from 2-5:30 p.m.; the Anchorage will have a Haunted History Tour at 6 p.m.; a live performance of “Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat” at Peoples Bank Theatre (2 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday); and other events. People can check their website for a full list of events.

“We are so excited to be able to host The Great Race in Marietta,” Clark said. “That is an opportunity that only comes along once in a lifetime for a city.

“We are just thrilled to have that opportunity.”

Work began on the project last year and was included in the CVB’s Visitor Guide that came out in January.

“We have been talking about it for months,” Clark said. “Our hope is that an event on this large of a scale that is so significant in the United States that it will bring a lot of people here, especially people who have never been to Marietta before.

“This will be their first exposure to our lovely river town and we hope they will fall in love with Marietta and want to come back and spend more time here.”

On Sunday, in addition to the Great Race coming to downtown Marietta, a large Motorsports Show is being held in conjunction with it. The Motorsports Show will include vintage and race cars, sports cars, hot rods, motorcycles, jeeps, antique engines, trucks, tractors, antique hearses, and so much more. It will be held on Second Street from Putnam to Greene streets in all of the parking lots. There are 600-800 cars expected for that event.

The Great Race itself will feature 140 cars, representing 35 states and international teams from Australia, Japan, Canada and England. One of the oldest cars in the event is from 1913.

The drivers and navigators will be given a dinner Sunday at the Lafayette Hotel. The cars will then be parked on Front Street until 7:30 p.m. where the public can come for a “Meet and Greet” type event. Drivers and Navigators will be with their cars and be able to interact with the spectators.

Witucky said Wittens Farm Market will be providing 1,000 ears of corn which will be fixed at the Lafayette Hotel. The drivers, navigators and crew make up around 610 people.

There is a competition among the host cities for who has the best venue.

“We are going to show off some of the food we have in southeastern Ohio,” Witucky said. “We are excited to give them some sweetcorn from our area.”

Free parking and shuttle service will be provided from the Washington County Fairgrounds on Sunday.