The Amazing Raceaired a brand new episode March 4, 2012 on CBS.
Below is a real-time live blogging of the show with all the up-to-the-minute details.
When the first plane lands, Art and JJ become the first team to get a detour clue. As the detour, teams must choose either “fruit market” where they have to stack watermelons in a perfect 10×10 pyramid, or “strung out” where they choose a harp and attach 36 strings to their instrument.
Of the first group/plane, Art and JJ, Rachel and Dave choose the first task, to stack the watermelons. Bopper and Mark, Nary and Jane also join the fruit stacking.
Art and JJ again are the first team to get their next clue which has them going to Plaza De La Democrazia. Rachel and Dave and Nary and Jamie are also almost done with their detour but both of their stacks fall. And then, so does Bopper and Mark’s. Rachel insists that she and Dave heading to the other detour. Bopper and Mark and Nary and Jane decide to go over to the other one as well.
Art and JJ meanwhile arrive at the Roadblock. One of them has to partake in a Paraguay tradition of a choreographed bottle dance. The dancer is given bottles and if all of the bottles break, the team ends up with a 2 hour penalty.
Rachel R. and Brandon start at the watermelon detour but before long, decide to switch to the other one. Art and JJ finish the Roadblock and head to the pit stop at Escalinata in Paraguay. They are the first team to arrive and win a trip to the Bahamas.
Elliott and Andrew have strung guitars before so they think they have an edge over the others at the detour for stringing the harp. But they quickly figure out that stringing the two instruments is quite different. Rachel and Dave arrive and find that the task is too difficult, so they decide to use their fast pass and move forward to the Roadblock.
Rachel R. and Brendon are the first team to finish stringing the harp with Bopper and Mark a close second behind. On the other detour, Joey and Danny finished building their watermelon pyramid. Vanessa and Ralph’s pyramid falls apart. Ralph wants to leave the race but Vanessa convinces him to stay to show an example to his daughter that he finishes what he starts.
At the Roadblock, Rachel R., Bopper, Nary and Joey are the ones balancing bottles on their heads for the bottle dance. Rachel R. is the first one to finish. Joey finishes next. Rachel R. and Brendon are the third team to arrive after Rachel and Dave. But at the pit stop, they are told that Rachel and Dave have a penalty so Rachel and Brandon are the second team in fact.
Joey and Danny arrive third. Bopper and Mark are team number four, Nary and Jamie are team number five. With their penalty, Rachel and Dave are team number six. Kerri and Stacy are the seventh team to arrive.
Back to the Roadblock, Andrew is trying to balance the bottle on his head. Rachel and Dave arrive and are surprise that the twins are still in it. Ralph finishes and heads to the pit stop with Rachel. Andrew also finishes and it’s a foot race now. But Vanessa and Ralph arriving in eighth position which means Andrew and Elliott are eliminated from the race.
PIT STOP:
Update: Elliot & Andrew were last team to arrive and were eliminated
1st Team: Art & JJ
2nd – Brendon & Rachel
3rd – Joey “Fitness” & Danny
4th – Bopper & Mark
5th – Nary & Jaimie
6th – Rachel & Dave – they arrived second but incurred a two-hour penalty
7th – Kerri & Stacy
8th – Vanessa & Ralph
9th – Elliot & Andrew