Every spring, a fleet of Ferraris, Mustangs, and Lamborghinis along with some scrappy, self-proclaimed jalopies descend on West Texas for the annual Big Bend Open Road Race. The race, the first of which was held in 1998, follows a 118-mile route from Fort Stockton to Sanderson and back. This year’s weekend of speed (think 160-plus miles per hour) brought rain delays, a power outage, and some true Texas characters. 

Waiting for the festivities to get underway, Vaughn Gross, of Dallas, sits in her Corvette in the parking lot of Fort Stockton’s Community Hall. Gross was an accomplished educator who retired as the assistant superintendent for the Richardson Independent School District. The University of Texas’s Vaughn Gross Center for Reading and Language Arts, dedicated to improving education for underrepresented students, is named after her.
Photograph by Nicole Mlakar
This was the first Big Bend Open Road Race experience for Leon Ekery, of El Paso, who entered his 1956 DeSoto in the speed class. He won third place n the 100 speed class in Saturday's race.
Photograph by Nicole Mlakar
Many of the cars have been customized with stickers, paint, and unique interiors.
Photograph by Nicole Mlakar
The energy and excitement surrounding Saturday’s race was palpable during Friday’s car show at Rooney Park, where drivers had an opportunity to talk shop and ogle their friends' tricked-out vehicles.
Photograph by Nicole Mlakar
The Youth Leadership of Fort Stockton hosted a car wash during the show to raise money for college scholarships.
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Brothers George and Wade Kohl, who live in Dallas and Houston respectively, meet up in West Texas to race their 2002 Dodge Viper each year. The car took part in the Pirelli World Challenge in the early 2000s.
Photograph by Nicole Mlakar
A fixture at the Big Bend Open Road Race, former rodeo star and actor Barry Tubb, whom you may recognize as Jasper Fant, a character in the Lonesome Dove miniseries, lounges atop his car, “the Dirty Bird.” The TransAm has an interesting past: it was seized during a drug bust in Del Rio. It had been the car Tubb had been dreaming of owning since he first saw Smokey and the Bandit. The car had been sitting under a tree for twenty years before a “cranky old man” sold it to Tubb. “Anyone can walk into a showroom and buy a new Corvette, but that’s not exactly the spirit of the race. Only certain kind of people can dig a car out of the weeds to race it. The car doesn’t know where it came from—it thinks it’s brand new,” Tubb says.
Photograph by Nicole Mlakar
Ted Eaton, of Lorrain, is a long-time BBORR participant and races a different car every year. This time around, it was his 1966 Ford Fairlane. This was the car he was driving when he started dating his wife, Linda, in the seventies. They raced it in the eighties and then put it away in a barn for 31 years. It made its return debut during this year's race. They took second place in the 95 speed class.
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This 2006 Ford GT belongs to Don McClure, of Midland. McClure and his colorful ride have raced in the BBORR many times.
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U.S. 285, winding between Fort Stockton and Sanderson, is where most of the action happens.
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Pictured here is Al Richards’s replica of a 1966 Shelby Cobra, during one of the practice runs on Friday. Richards went on to win second place in the 105 class on Saturday.
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Qualifying and practice races occur on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday leading up to the big race day on Saturday. Racers are divided into seventeen classes based on experience and technical abilities.
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On Friday, drivers fall in line for a parade from Park to Main streets, in Fort Stockton, after the car show at Rooney Park.
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Miss Fort Stockton, Sarah Smith, joined the parade in Jack Madeley’s Cobra. Enthusiastic young car fans run to grab candy that drivers toss out of the cars as they drive.
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Clad in their racing jumpsuits, drivers are set to go before sunrise on Saturday morning. They met at Rooney Park to be marked as present before driving together to the starting line on Highway 285.
Photograph by Nicole Mlakar
Even on their way to the starting line, drivers were racing full speed ahead.
Photograph by Nicole Mlakar
Barry Tubb makes his way to the starting line. “I just love the idea of going as fast as you can without a cop chasing you. You can get it all out in a matter of twenty minutes,” he says.
Photograph by Nicole Mlakar
Looming clouds on Saturday morning soon developed into rain and fog, causing race delays.
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Jody and Nancy Orsag came prepared, using umbrellas to take shelter in their Cobra.
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Frank Clark, of Fairview, and Nick Stewart, of Frisco, both members of the North Texas Racing Team, pass the time during the rain delay.
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Wade Koehl found a spot for a cat nap during the delay.
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With the fog and rain clearing, cars lined up ready to race.
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Soon after one of the first groups took off, a Porsche hit a telephone pole causing a power outage just a mile from the turn-around point, in Sanderson, resulting in yet another delay.
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Tubb, who lives in Snyder, is pictured with his navigator, Cody Caruthers, of Sanderson. Unfortunately, Caruthers had to get to work before the rain delay finally ended. The two men competed in the rodeo together as kids. Next year, Tubb plans to race his grandfather’s 1954 GMC pickup that he's restoring.
Photograph by Nicole Mlakar
Regarding the interior of “the Dirty Bird,” Tubb says he accidentally ordered the floor mats in pink, but when they arrived in the mail, he decided it was actually the perfect color for his car.
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All dressed up and nowhere to go.
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Lindsay Ballard, of Midland, was the navigator for Nick McClure. Their Porsche GT3 went on to win third place in the 120 class.
Photograph by Nicole Mlakar
John Riemann, of Austin, with his niece Katie Wyatt, who was navigating. They were racing a powder-blue replica of a Ford GT40.
Photograph by Nicole Mlakar
Vaughn Gross was all smiles on race day despite the unexpected delays.
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Cowboy hats, boots, and jumpsuits was the uniform of the weekend.
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Steve Belardo, of Alpine, is ready to go in his cherry-red 2006 Panoz Esperante.
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Mark Smith, of Longview, sits at the starting line in his Shelby Daytona Coupe.
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Helmet on, wheels up. Jack Madeley, of College Station, was ready to roll in his Cobra. He went home with first place in the 115 speed class.
Photograph by Nicole Mlakar
Between the rain, the fog, and the power outage, there were the most delays of any competition in the Big Bend Open Road Race’s history. But despite it all, the BBORR tradition carried the day and drivers were able to compete in the first leg of the race, between Fort Stockton and Sanderson. They left with high hopes for clear skies next year—and big plans for whatever car they plan on racing.
Photograph by Nicole Mlakar