Driven to help kids, Cambridge man wins 2,000-mile Mexican road race

Cambridge retiree Russell Gee won a 2,000-mile amateur road race in Mexico last week and kids at the Franciscan Hospital for Children in Brighton made him a trophy in celebration. Photo submitted by the Franciscan Hospital for Children.

By Brock Parker, Town Correspondent

As he raced 2,000 miles through Mexico, Russell Gee’s vintage 1959 Jaguar ran out of gas, lost its brakes and at one point depended on a shoestring to speed up and slow down.

But when Gee, who is 65 years old and lives in Cambridge, reached the finish line of La Carrera Panamericana Road Race on Oct. 27, he’d won his first amateur race and brought a few smiles to the faces of kids at the Franciscan Hospital for Children in Brighton.

Gee, who raised $10,000 dollars for the hospital by participating in the race, took the time each night of the seven-day road race to blog on Facebook so kids at the hospital could see his progress in the grueling and sometimes dangerous contest.

“It’s really silly,” Gee said of a man his age participating in the race. “It’s infantile. It’s immature. It’s awesomely fun and to be able to do that and have the kids get to go along for the ride in a way… What else am I going to do with my life?”

According to the race web site, Gee finished 57th overall but won his class.

Gee said he retired from the software business in 2006 and within three weeks of walking out of his office he was getting his racing license. Growing up near the Watkins Glen International race track in New York, he said he’d always been interested in racing and fooled around with race cars a little in the 1980s before being distracted by his career.

Since he retired Gee said he’s been racing in amateur contests, and this year his team has finally begun to have some success with a few 2nd place finishes.

But until he won La Carrera Panamerica, Gee said he’d never won a race before. The 2,000 mile race is well-known to car enthusiasts, Gee said, and has its roots in a race that ran for a few years in the 1950s to showcase the Mexican stretch of the Pan-American Highway. The race was revived in 1988 and Gee said he participated in it the first time in 2009 and barely finished.

Mexican police travel with several classes of race cars that participate in the race and the route begins in Huatulco before traveling north 2,000 miles to Zacatecas, which is about 100 miles south of the Texas border.

Each day of racing is broken into several sections, and the race stops in a different town every night, Gee said. When the racers arrive, Gee said local politicians sometimes greet them, celebrations with bands and food are held and kids ask the drivers for their autographs.

“It’s an amazing experience,” he said.

But the race is not without its dangers. Gee said while Mexican roads are in good shape, much of the race is through mountains and reaches elevations of around 6,000 feet. Many of the roads do not have guardrails and Gee said some drivers drove off cliffs, others hit trees and everyone had to deal with break-downs, running out of gas, livestock in the roadway and traffic.

Each day, a section of the race is timed for speed and Gee said he topped out at 120 mph. But winning other sections depends on a driver’s ability to arrive at designated locations at an exact time and drivers are penalized for being late or too early.

Gee said he was one of the oldest drivers and there were about 110 cars in the race, including about 10 or 11 cars participating in the vintage car class of his 1959 Jaguar XK 150. He called his car an old “bomber” and at one point during the race a gas pedal cable for Jaguar broke and he and his navigator had to rig up a shoestring in its stead to speed up and slow the car.

“How cool is that?” he said.

Gee said to assuage the guilt of his “foolish” racing habits, he got involved with the Franciscan Hospital for Children to raise awareness and money for the hospital’s work educating and treating children with medical or behavior needs.

A week before traveling to Mexico for the race, Gee went to the hospital to show the kids his racing suit.

“They loved the fireproof underwear,” he said.

The hospital said children read the daily Facebook updates of Gee’s progress, and teachers used the race route to give geography lessons and teach children a few Spanish words.

Doug Chamberlain, a member of the board of directors at the special needs hospital, said the children felt like they were along for the ride during the race, and when Gee visited the hospital they peppered him with questions about car crashes and how he went to the bathroom on the road.

“It just elevates them and they get very excited about it,” Chamberlain said.
Chamberlain said he also thinks the mission of brightening the spirits of kids at the hospital helped Gee get through the grueling race.

“Russell won because he was so motivated by the children,” he said.

Gee said after he won the race last week, he came home and slept for two days. But Wednesday he went back to the hospital to celebrate the victory with the kids. His Jaguar was too beat up from the race, so Gee said he brought in a different race car to show the kids.

They rewarded him with a homemade trophy using duct tape, aluminum foil and a plastic car on top.

“It made me cry,” Gee said. “They were so excited to have something other than their problems.”

While Gee said he didn’t win any money from the Pan-American race, he raised about $10,000 for the hospital by asking friends to contribute in support for his race team.

“You know what, I think were going to do it again next year, and raise $20,000” he said.

--brock.globe@gmail.com