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Hitting the Final Mat with Brian and Ericka of The Amazing Race
by Reg Seeton
One of the strongest teams of The Amazing Race
15, husband and wife team of Nashville marketing
tour manager, Brian Kleinschmidt, and former Miss
America, Ericka Dunlap, had their fair share of
highs and lows leading up to The Amazing Race
finale. Although Brian and Ericka were always
an Amazing Race threat, Prague proved to be a
huge challenge, as Brian and Ericka almost saw
themselves on the outside of The Amazing Race
looking in at the other Amazing Race teams after
nearly being eliminated.
Thanks to a non-elimination round, Brian and Ericka regrouped for a second chance at Amazing Race glory and a renewed run at landing in the top three for The Amazing Race finale. When the teams touched down in Las Vegas to run the final leg of The Amazing Race, Brian and Ericka were in the heat of competition until the Nashville couple hit a roadblock and fell victim to a Cirque du Soleil bungee task at The Beatles "Love" show. As a result, Brian and Ericka lost precious Amazing Race time and crossed the finish line in third at the estate of singer Wayne Newton behind brothers Sam and Dan and Meghan and Cheyne who won The Amazing Race 15.
The next morning we caught up with Brian and Ericka of The Amazing Race to find out their Amazing Race turning point, whether Brian could have ran down Mandalay Bay instead of Ericka, what they would have done differently, their thoughts on Sam and Dan, and the real story behind the broken stick shift we heard about earlier in the season.
THE DEADBOLT: You guys should've been awarded second place for knowing who Wayne Newton is.
ERICKA DUNLAP: Hello! Thank you.
 BRIAN
KLEINSCHMIDT: You know what? You are the
first person that we talked to today that actually
realized that.
ERICKA: Which makes you the smartest person.
THE DEADBOLT: [laughs] Sam and Dan should've been given a penalty for that.
BRIAN: [laughs] You know what's funny? Sam and Dan are some of our best friends now. Do you know who they thought it was?
THE DEADBOLT: Who?
BRIAN: George Wallace, who is an African American performer in Vegas. I'm glad you noticed that, because in the clue it said, "You need to know who this person is."
THE DEADBOLT: You were so strong for most of the race. Aside from the finale, did you feel there was a turning point before you got to Vegas?
BRIAN: Honestly, I felt like our turning point was in Amsterdam. I really do, it was our worst leg. But at the same time it was our best leg. I mean, everything that could've went wrong that leg went wrong. Every team has it and that was our leg. I had trouble getting the car in gear, it was raining, and I wasn't feeling well. Ericka had some trouble at the bell tower and then we decided to not take the bikes for some reason. But when we got to that dance challenge, it was like we forgot about all of that stuff and we put it all aside and we almost fell in love with each other as we were dancing, because we knew we were like three hours behind. So we were like, "Whatever happens was meant to be." When we got on that mat and Phil said that we were still in it, I think that's the turning point where we really believed that we were in this thing to win it.
THE DEADBOLT: Ericka, how tough was it up there on Mandalay Bay?
 ERICKA:
Oh man, it was like no big deal, honestly. I
mean, the only thing that was really challenging
was that as I was working my way down the rope,
it was kind of burning my hand. We had gloves
on but it was burning through the gloves a little
bit. That was the only thing that was uncomfortable
about it. But I was just psyched that I was
actually doing that, it was so exciting. I can't
believe that I had the chance to do it and I
know that my whole family was just like, "What?
She's actually doing it and enjoying doing it."
I'm not like an adrenaline junkie, but for something
like that it was a once in a life time. You
just had to go for it and go all in.
THE DEADBOLT: Brian, if Ericka had used up all of the roadblocks, could you've done it?
BRIAN: Actually, we were very smart about our roadblocks. We had it all planned out because we honestly thought the last challenge was going to be a memory challenge. Ericka was so prepared for the memory challenge. She had a song written about all of the roadblocks and all of the places we went. She had a little diddy written. So if I would've had to have done it, I would've done it, because one of my goals going into this was getting over my fear of heights and it's a crazy fear. If you notice Cheyne going down that building, I probably would've looked like Cheyne. I think Cheyne passed out on the way down. You know, if had to do it, I would've done it. But luckily Ericka stepped up to the plate and knocked it out for the team.
THE DEADBOLT: What was the key to getting the bouquet of flowers in the Cirque du Soleil challenge?
 BRIAN:
The bouquet of flowers was frustrating. But
it wasn't as frustrating as they made it look
on TV. They made it look like we were there
all day. But when you think about it, when Meghan
and Cheyne got their bouquet, the only mistake
they made is that they went to the Venetian.
When they realized that was wrong, they went
straight to Monte Carlo to the poker room. Well,
we beat them to the poker room, so we could
not have been at the bungee that long. So they
made it look like we were a little more frustrated
than we were. But the key was to stay calm and
to get it on the second bounce and you had to
take the right angle. It wasn't necessarily
Ericka's fault, it was more me because I was
controlling where she went. If Ericka was about
three inches taller, that would've helped, too.
THE DEADBOLT: What did each of you learn from that task?
ERICKA: You really just have to slow
down and communicate. I think that's the most
important thing, just evaluate the situation
and develop a strategy that can be taken in
many different adventures in life. I mean, you
just never know when you just have to take a
deep breath, evaluate what's going on, and then
work from there based on looking around you.
One of the things that I think was our downfall
was that we got in first and we really didn't
know what we were doing. Sam and Dan and Meghan
and Cheyne, not to say they were copying us,
but they definitely had a chance to learn from
our mistakes and realize that they were able
to catch up to us, and they were able to gain
some really precious ground.
BRIAN: Just staying calm under pressure is huge. Like Ericka said, getting to a roadblock is not always an advantage. Even though this wasn't a roadblock, getting to a challenge like that first is not always the best. I can remember when we were in Dubai, Dan and I were one of the first ones searching for those urns. We searched for forty five minutes before we found those urns. When the other group came, they just saw where we were and walked right out to those urns. So it's not always an advantage to be first.
THE DEADBOLT: Given how Sam and Dan played throughout the race, would either of you go back and do anything differently?
 BRIAN:
No. I'm really proud the way we ran the race.
We tried to stay honest and play fair and not
make any enemies. That was one of our main goals,
because when you start focusing on other teams
and start bickering and fighting, you lose focus
of your own team. We tried to stay clear of
that and play nice. If we could help people
out, we helped them out. But I wasn't going
to help Big Easy with the Franz thing. If we
could help somebody out who wasn't going to
put us out, we had no problem doing that. Sam
and Dan, I respect the way they ran the race.
It's just not the way we chose to run it.
ERICKA: At the same time, I think it would've been smart if perhaps during that situation Brian would've just gone down to somehow stop them from carrying through and allowing them to put us almost out of the race. That's the only thing I wish we would've done a little bit differently. But I'm proud of the fact that we were decent and kind to everybody who was running the race.
I had my meltdown moments with Brian, but that's just kind of the strange part of our dynamic. We were talking about this a little earlier. In real life, he is the one who's a lot more feisty and frantic and I'm the one who's always kind of calm and collected and trying to figure out what the solution is going to be. So we definitely had a role reversal throughout the race and it's interesting to watch all of that play out. Half of the time when we're watching these episodes, I don't even know that I said or did some of those things, because it was just raw, fleshy emotion that was coming out. There was no real bone to it.
BRIAN: After the first leg or so, you honestly forget that the cameramen are there and that there's a mic on you. That's why the show is so genuine and real, because all of the emotions that you're seeing are as real as you can get.
THE DEADBOLT: I've been talking to the other teams about a broken stick shift. What can you tell me about that?
 BRIAN:
[laughs] I don't know what you're talking about.
THE DEADBOLT: [laughs] Lance told me you broke a stick shift.
BRIAN: Leaving the L.A.sewer system. First of all, that was just crazy with the license plates. I almost had a heart attack when Phil said a team is going to be eliminated right on the spot. But we got our license plate and got in the car. I've never driven a Mercedes like that so I thought that it was just a regular gear shift where I had to pull up and down on it. Well, little did I know, all you had to do was touch a little button and that put it in gear. So I took the whole gear shifter, put it in drive, pulled down and the whole thing came off in my hand. So I quickly got out of that car, got in the next car, and drove to the airport. I left that one for Lance, my friend. The funny thing is, Lance thinks that he broke it. When I told him at the end of the race that I was the one who broke it, we had a great laugh about it.
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