Anthony Marotta, Stephanie Kacandes axed from 'The Amazing Race'

"Dating Couple" Anthony Marotta and Stephanie Kacandes' poor performance in The Amazing Race 13's first leg extended into the show's second leg, and as a result, the couple became the second team eliminated from The Amazing Race's thirteenth season during last night's broadcast of the CBS realilty series.


"We gave it our best shot" Stephanie said after The Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan informed the couple they'd been the last team to arrive at the Race's second Pit Stop.  "We had a great time with each other and it's a wonderful experience that we shared with each other and we'll never forget it.

"[Anthony and I are] definitely gonna move forward and have a future together," she added later. "Hopefully financially we'll be able to get back on track. When you drive around parts of Brazil... you know, it puts [everything] in perspective." 

"I have a lot of things in my life to be thankful for. I have my health, I have my parents, I have my looks," Anthony added with a laugh. "And I have Stephanie."

The Amazing Race 13's second episode began with the ten remaining teams leaving from Forte Sao Marcelo, an old fort that served as the location of The Amazing Race 13's initial Pit Stop. Following a mandatory rest period, the "Brother and Sister" team of Nick and Starr Spangler -- the first team to reach the race's Pit Stop -- were the first to depart at 4:07AM.


After opening their first clue, Nick and Starr were instructed them to take a taxi to the local airport and fly 640 miles to Fortaleza, Brazil. Once there, they had to travel to the town of Cumbuko and find their next clue in Casa Del Cumbuko, the town's plaza.

Following Nick and Starr were "Separated Couple" team Ken and Tina Greene, who left the Pit Stop at 4:13AM and "Newly Dating Couple" Terence Gerchberg and Sarah Leshner who left at 4:15AM.

However even leaving the Pit Stop proved eventful for Terrence and Sarah, who had continued to argue about Sarah's desire to get to know some of the other teams during the Race's overnight stops.  Terrence hit his head on their taxi's trunk door as they were leaving the Pit Stop, causing Sarah to have to attempt to calm his worry about a potential cut on his head.

"There are a lot of different sides to Terrence. He is a ball of emotion," Sarah said after the incident.  "If there's a way that I can reduce the drama, I try to."

"Best Friends" Mark Yturralde and Bill Hahler left the Pit Stop next at 4:24AM and were followed by  "Divorcees" Kelly Crabb and Christy Cook at 4:44AM,  "Mother and Son" Toni and Dallas Imbimbo at 4:57AM, "Fraternity Brothers" Andrew Lappitt and Dan Honig at  5:03 AM, "Long Distance Dating Couple" Aja Benton and Ty White at 5:05 AM, and Anthony and Stephanie at 5:11AM.


"Friends" couple Marisa Axelrod and Brooke Jackson were the last team to leave the Pit Stop last at 5:13AM, with Brooke acknowledging that she and Marisa had to be "tougher" and "more aggressive in the upcoming legs of the race if they wanted to avoid elimination.

Nick and Star arrived to the airport first -- with Ken and Tina right on their heels -- only to discover that the only scheduled flight to Fortaleza wasn't leaving until hours later at 11:30AM.

However, after the two couples found a different airline with a flight to Fortaleza that only had one seat left, Tina's continued persistence with the airline attendant allegedly led the airline to switch the flight to a larger plane in order to accommodate all of the teams.

"Tina has the unique ability to make the person on the other side of the counter think that they are working for her," Ken said with Tina at her side as they both laughed.

After all the teams arrived at the airport and booked tickets on the flight -- which Tina made sure to boast was due to her efforts -- they lined up for boarding but were angered when Tina cut the line after stopping to get her currency converted and arriving late.


"What's fair is fair, we checked in first we get to go first," Tina told Terrence, who objected the most to the move. "You wouldn't even be on this place if I hadn't' gotten [the airline] to change [the flight]."

"You didn't get them to change it!" Terrence responded angrily. "You got an airline to change a plane? That's amazing. I'm not believing either one of you guys on that one."

"I don't care if you believe it or not," Ken responded sternly over Terrence's shoulder.

After talking, the two teams apologized for getting mad at each other before boarding the flight.

Once in Brazil, Terrence and Sarah jumped into the lead by grabbing the first cab on the way to Cumbuko. They were followed by Kelly and Christy and Andrew and Dan.


While Anthony and Stephanie appeared to be the fourth team to hail a cab, they encountered another round of taxi trouble when their taxi wouldn't start.  Toni and Dallas, Aja and Ty, Marisa and Brooke, Mark and Bill, Nick and Starr, and Ken and Tina all managed to the couple as Anthony attempted to push the manual-transmission car into starting -- a decision that frustrated Stephanie.

"We're missing all the taxis! Honey he's not doing it, he doesn't know what he's doing!" Stephanie yelled to Anthony before they eventually abandoned the cab and found another one and left the airport in last place.

"Everything is broken in this country. Every cab we've been in, it looks like they've been playing bumper cars for years with them," Anthony said angrily as they sat in their new cab. "It's a joke."

Terrence and Sarah were the first team to arrive at Casa Del Cumbuko where they received their next clue that instructed them to take dune buggies on the beach to a beachfront stand named Barraca D' Manoel, where they would receive their next clue. Each team found the clue in successive order except for the teams of Andrew and Dan as well as Aja and Ty, both of whom couldn't find the clue box and fell to eighth and ninth place respectively.

Meanwhile, although still stuck in their last place taxi, Stephanie took a moment to note of the conditions that the people in the towns they passed lived in.


"It really makes you appreciate what you have," Anthony said to Stephanie.

Terrence and Sarah made it to the Barraca D Manoel first -- just slightly ahead of Kelly and Christy -- where they received their Detour for the leg.

As always, the teams were given the choice of two Detour tasks.  "Beach It" required the teams to travel to a beach and, with the help of a two-person boating team, use wooden logs to transport a 440 lb. boat 100 yards to water.  "Dock It," required the teams to travel to a container storage facility in the Port of Pechem and use a computer to find a specific numeric code, and then use an associated alphabetical code to track down a shipping container containing their next clue.

While most teams decided to "Beach It," Mark and Bill decided to use their computer skills for "Dock It."

Marisa and Brooke also intended to do the "Dock It" Detour, however they gave their driver the wrong directions and ended up going to the "Beach It" location instead.

While Kelly and Christy tired during the challenge, Nick and Starr passed Tonia and Dallas. Marisa and Brooke also struggled with finding the athleticism needed to finish the challenge.


After becoming being the first team to finish the "Beach It" task, Terrence and Sarah received another clue instructing them to take a taxi to the Parque de Vaquejada.  However, although the show had posted signs marking the way to their waiting taxis, Terrence and Sarah missed them and lost their lead by running along the beach into town instead.

After completing "Dock It" with relative ease, Mark and Bill jumped into first place.

Nick and Star passed Kelly and Christy -- who got their boat in the water quickly but them misread their instructions and wasted additional time searching for the container that was only part of the other Detour task -- and quickly grabbed a cab and jumped into second place.

Ken and Tina completed the challenge next, followed by Toni and Dallas. After finding a highway and being ignored as several teams passed by in their taxis, Terrence received help from Toni and Dallas, who stopped and who told them where the taxis were waiting.

Andrew and Dan finished the Detour in fifth place, followed by Kelly and Christy, Aja and Ty, Marisa and Brooke, Terrence and Sarah, and Anthony and Stephanie far behind in last.

Mark and Bill were the first team to arrive at their next clue: a Roadblock task that required one member of each team to identify the location of the race's next Pit Stop -- Cidade da Crianca, a local park -- on a 600-foot wall that had many advertisements on it.


After initially being confused by the challenge, Bill decided to write down the name of every location he could find and kept reading them aloud until he hit the right one and the local Roadblock overseer gave him the next clue.

Tina copied Bill's plan and followed them in second place.

Although they arrived in third place, Andrew struggled with the Roadblock, causing he and Dan to drop to eighth place by the time he completed the challenge. Nick and Starr arrived in fourth place, but dropped to seventh after also being being confused by the challenge.

Kelly and Christy were the third team to complete the challenge but lost valuable time by forgetting to tell their cab driver to wait as they completed the Roadblock task.  Luckily for them, the driver had apparently waited for them in the field on the other side of the wall anyways, however it took the women a while to realize that was the case.

Aja and Ty completed the Roadblock in fifth place, followed by Toni and Dallas and Terrence and Sarah. Marisa and Brooke finished the task in ninth, with Anthony and Stephanie remaining in last place after Anthony failed to capitalize on a chance to use the Roadblock to make up some ground on the other teams.

Meanwhile, Mark and Bill and Ken and Tina both arrived at the Cidade da Crianca at the same time and raced neck-and-neck to the finish line with Ken and Tina prevailing. After being greeted by Phil, they were informed that they had won off-road vehicles for coming in first.


"We do continue to have communication problems, but when we stepped on the mat and found out we were number one, that kinda just gave me hope again. It made me realize that we have so much potential," Tina said happily after finishing.

Mark and Bill checked-in at the Pit Stop in second place, followed by Terrence and Sarah, Aja and Ty, Toni and Dallas, Nick and Starr, Kelly and Christy, Andrew and Dan, and Marisa and Brooke.

After becoming the last team to check-in, Anthony and Stephanie were informed that they had been eliminated from the race.

The Amazing Race 13's next episode will air Sunday, October 12 at 8PM ET/PT on CBS.






About The Author: John Bracchitta