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Rally North America drivers reach historic Bramwell checkpoint

By BLAKE STOWERS

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

BRAMWELL, W.Va.  — The rumble of sports cars were heard passing through the quiet town of Bramwell Tuesday as a national road race and scavenger hunt made its way across the East Coast.

Rally North America riders visit Bramwell Tuesday during a national road race and scavenger hunt.
(Photo by Jessica Nuzzo)

Rally North America Route Organizer Tony Intieri helped to organize this particular run, which went from Virginia to Georgia.

“We’ve been running these scavenger hunts since 2010,” Intieri said. “We’ve done one or two events a year. Since our inception, we’ve raised (as of Tuesday evening) $770,000 for our charities.”

David and Wendy Ledbetter from Greenville, S.C., traveled the back roads to Bramwell in an Infiniti. David Ledbetter said this is the third or fourth time they have been a part of the Rally North America event.

“Each year, we rotate between charities,” David Ledbetter said. “We’re in a black Infiniti. It has the standard 3.7 engine with twin injection. The suspension’s been modified a little bit. That makes it fun.”

Wendy Ledbetter said participants in the group receive a pamphlet every morning.

“It has picture clues,” Wendy Ledbetter said. “You do a quick stop, drop and Google search and find out who, what, when and where. We try to plan it out so we’re hitting each one in a timely fashion. Sometimes the checkpoints will throw you off and you have to back track, so we always try to go three or four checkpoints ahead so we’re in line.”

Intieri said this year’s charity is called Hope for the Warrior.

“They work with people who are post 9/11 veterans that are coming back to civilian life,” Intieri said. “They try to help them with adjustment. They also work with families. We had two gold star families last night at our drivers meeting to talk to our group about what our charity is and how they help and those types of things.”

Intieri said, as the route organizer, he typically tries to find sites that are scenic and historic. “I look for things that are indicative of the area we’re going through,” Intieri said. “A place like Bramwell is perfect. It’s one of the places you want to go if you’re here. It is a car event, but if I go with car only things, it’s not everybody’s cup of tea. We try to mix it up. There’s different things on the route. There’s an ice cream shop. We’ll throw some restaurants in. Later in the day, there’s a historic theater on the route. The nice thing about America is no matter where you are, there’s some sort of thought to keeping history alive and you can find something that’s going to be of interest to our group.”

Intieri said the trip started in Christiansburg on Tuesday. “We have a behind the scenes tour of Martinsville,” Intieri said. “They’re going to show us the media center, the pits, stuff normal people wouldn’t see.”

Intieri said the event ends in Georgia.

“It’s a three day event,” Intieri said. “We finish our event on Friday. We’re going to be driving on Talladega Superspeedway. So, for car people that’s a nice place to be.”

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