Racing For a Chance at $1M

The race was on at the Ninety Nine Restaurant in Tewksbury on Saturday morning as hundreds of people lined up to audition for the CBS hit reality show, The Amazing Race. From five minutes down the road to across the country, hopefuls came -- prepared for the challenge and eager to win the prize.

The Challenge: One minute to wow the judges and prove they have what it takes to be on the Amazing Race.

The Prize: A chance to travel the globe and take home $1 million.

The Amazing Race is a reality television show in which teams of two compete against other teams in a race around the world for a chance to win $ 1 million.  Typically, there are 11 teams and throughout the race they must complete, at times, outrageous tasks, and be the first to arrive at "pit stops" throughout different legs of the race in order to avoid elimination.

At 7 a.m., when the auditions began, there was a line wrapping around the restaurant, but those premium, first in line, would-be contestants were there at 5 p.m. the night before and camped out, according to Matt Dowling from the Amazing Race staff. He said people came early and from all over the region for their chance to compete on the show.

Charlotte, N.C. couple Brittany Baron and Kevin Manning, who had been in line since about 4 a.m., still had to wait almost and hour to audition. Like many who lined up, they are big fans of the show and wanted to compete in the race, but for them this was a way to spend time together.

"We have been doing a long-distance relationship, the race would give us more time together than we have had in our whole relationship," Baron explained.

Father-and-daughter team Scott and Breanne Pritchett of Texas have always wanted to be on the show.

"We jumped on an airplane and came over here," Scott said after hearing about the Tewksbury audition.

Although they had been practicing what to say during their audition, Scott admitted he got a little nervous when the camera's light came on, and completely forgot to mention he is a firefighter. Either way, the father and daughter team said they were drawn to the adventure and in for it all.

"For a trip around the world, my dad is the only person I could do that with," Breanne said.

Although most of the people who came out to audition were just going to "wing it" through the audition, some, like the "queens of the race" stood out from the crowd with their own unique gimmick.

Dale Stafford of Ashland and Rita McQuinn of Princeton were as vervacious as their sparkling tiaras. Dubbing themselves the queens of the race, the 55-plus-aged ladies were there to show the world that even women with a little age on them could be the first female pair to take the whole show.

"At our age, over 55 is all we'll say, people think people over 55 can't do much," Stafford said. "We're here to show them people over 55 can do anything, we don't look or act it, we can cross that finish line as number one. "

And like any good queen, "(we're the) only two women here who can be nasty and cutthroat and still act like royalty."

Unlike the "queens of the race," who have been co-workers and friends for more than 10 years, the "GETTO Girls," Jennifer Butterworth of Southboro and Andrea Berger of Marlboro, who have only known each other for a year, had a more humane approach. After years of watching frustrated contestants take their anger out on taxi drivers, they came up with an idea, "GETTO Girls, Girls for the Ethical Treatment of Taxi Operators."

"We are very competitive, don't underestimate short girls," Butterworth explained. "We would love to see two short unique kick-[butt] girls intimidate the competition and be the first two-girl team to win the Amazing Race."

The GETTO Girls, who admitted they came out to audition because they were feeling a little stagnate in their life and wanted a fresh start, figured a trip around the world was the perfect cure.

"A free trip around the world with a chance to win $1 million, now this a no-brainer," Berger said.

The only triple threat at the audition were brother-and-sister team Mike Conrad of Pelham N.H., and Jen Richards of Westford, and of course, Fred the gnome. Conrad said the Race would be a good opportunity to strengthen their bond as brother and sister.

Richards interjected, "This is a great experience to travel the world, get out of Westford and have some fun. What other chance do you get to do all that?"

They came out two-by-two from all walks of life and all relationships: father and son, mother and daughter, brother and sister, cousins, dating, married, friends old and new, and the young and young at heart, all for a chance to travel the globe and take home some cash.

With just one minute to capture the judge's hearts, some took over the camera, while others were taken over by nerves.  With their auditions behind them, now all they can do is wait. Those chosen to advance to the semifinals of the audition process in Los Angeles will be contacted by the show's producers.

New episodes of the most recent season of The Amazing Race begin this fall.