In Dubai: An Amazing Race sprint to the end

 Amazing Race 37 Episode 6

 

By Jim Memmott

 

Dubai – The Amazing Race loves a photo finish and that’s what it got in this episode.

 

I don't mean the finish for first. Carson McCalley and Jack Dodge, best friends and gamers, were miles ahead of everyone else to win.

Credit a very fast car that took them to the world’s deepest diving pool where they snagged a Fast Forward that got them to the end.

 

Speaking of the world’s deepest, the racers also got glimpses of the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa. Everything in the Emirate of Dubai would seem to be over-sized. Oil money?

 

The close finish came at the end of the line when the brothers Nick and Mike Fiorito

outran Pops Bailey (left) and his son Jeff to the line, sending the Baileys home, and taking Bob Wilcox out of the pool.

It could have been different. Pops and Jeff missed a train by a millisecond. If the doors had opened for them and closed for Nick and Mike, life would be different. The Race isn’t fair. You’ve heard that before.

 

The episode offered a sky-diving challenge, one racer from each team going up in the plane.

 

Alyssa Burden jumped at the chance, but

one of the most touching moments of the season came when her husband, Josiah, told us how scared he was for her.

 

Back on the ground, the racers had to arrange cakes and cookies and other delectables for an afternoon tea, their creations judged by a French chef. It was Downton Abby comes to the desert. Oil money?

 

One from each couple also had to ride a motorized surfboard. Hard for some, easy for others, including Han Nguyen, who, with her brother Holden, finished second on the episode. After looking like goners early in the season, they seem to be winners now. Go figure.

 

Overheard

 

Josiah: I’ve always wanted to land there and say “Oh, hi, Dubai.”

 

Holden: We’re going to go until the wheels fall off on this thing.

 

Jack: It smells like camel poop, I think.

 

Josiah: I’ll be so happy when she lands.

 

Alyssa: Josiah, thank you so much for letting me do this.

 

Holden: I was like dude, why are you a good looking French guy?

 

Holden: Whew, that’s my girl, and, by that, I mean my sister.

 

Jeff: I kept my shoes on going into the water.... Not conducive to the experience.

 

Jeff: I’ve always looked at my father as Superman, and I actually got to see him fly today.

 

Order of finish

 

Carson McCalley and Jack Dodge

Han and Holden Nguyen

Alyssa and Josiah Burden

Brett Hamby and Mark Romain

Ana and Jonathan Towns

Melinda and Erika Papadeas

Nick and Mike Fiorito

 

Eliminated

 

Pops and Jeff Bailey