On Tuesday, our resident Empire Stater sat down with everyone's favorite Teutonic village person to chat about the difference between a rally and a transcontinental record attempt. Today FastLane Daily's got part two of their conversations, where Alex talks about the problems with irrefutably proving that one has travelled from New York to Los Angeles faster than anyone else, as well as the impact of accidents like the one on the Gumball 3000 on road rallies in general.

Related:
It's Not a Rally, It's a Race: Spinelli Chats With Alex Roy Regarding Transcon Hijinks [Internal]

Richard Rawlings and Dennis Collins sit down with Bullrun's Rory Camangian for the first segment of what's apparently a four-part interview. They cover the issue of fatigue, their bet with Jay Riecke and prepping the car. Interestingly enough, although Bullrun has posted the methods used to prove that Rawlings and Collins indeed did sprint from Manhattan to Redondo in 31:59, they still haven't answered our question: what was the mileage covered? Along with airing the actual proof, it's the other piece in the puzzle required to tell if they incontrovertibly beat 32:07 by eight minutes or not. – Davey G. Johnson

Rawlings & Collins Break Coast-to-Coast Record — Bullrun 2007 [Bullrun2007.com]

Related:
Did Rawlings and Collins Break the Transcontinental Record [Internal]

Herr Roy is getting pretty popular around the FastLane Daily studios, having spoken yesterday on the need for independent verification of the Rawlings/Collins transcontinental record(?). Today, he and Spinelli sat down for part one of a two-part powwow on the ins and outs of the legality of rallying, as well as the inherent supralegality of traveling from New York to Los Angeles at a high rate of speed.

Related:
Transcontinental 144: Alex Roy on the Rawlings/Collins Record Attempt; Top Gear's Thoughts on the TransCon Completion [Internal]

The ever-lovin' Herr Roy knows a thing or two about transcontinental control of incontinence in the service of swaths of ground covered in short amounts of time. He's harbored a friendly rivalry with both Richard Rawlings and the Collins Brothers since his first Gumball back in '03. And as a classic business-giver, Alex has laid down his call for third-party verification of the record (which, according to our conversation with Bullrun organizer Andy Duncan earlier today, there is ample evidence of). While refutations have been flying all morning, there are rumors of Rawlings appearing on Jay Leno tonight (which we heard from Bullrunners, but haven't been able to corroborate with our Tonight Show contact), and Andy insists that they "Definitely, definitely, definitely" went. If it all checks out, even given the distance between Darien, CT and Manhattan it sounds like they well-and-truly broke the Cannonball record from '79. Meanwhile, we're waiting for the exact mileage and a route map to see if there's any possible way that they outdrove the Diem/Turner US Express time from '83. – Davey G. Johnson

Related:
Did Rawlings and Collins Break the Transcontinental Record?; Texas Duo Claims to Have Broken 1979 Cannonball NYC to LA Run [Internal]

We've been on the phone all morning sorting out the veracity of Collins and Rawlings' stab at the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash Record. And frankly, it seems pretty legit to us. Collins and Rawlings are notably two of the fiercest competitors on the rallying scene. But there is another record, of thirty-two hours, seven minutes. While it seems as though Collins and Rawlings have legitimately smashed the Cannonball record of 32:51, the 32:07 record set by David Diem and Doug Turner during the 1983 running of the US Express (a successor race set up after Brock Yates shut down the Cannonball) hasn't exactly fallen. Why? Hit the jump for our reasoning, as well as the second part of Jay Riecke's challenge to the Transcontinental Texans.

The Dave Heinz/Dave Yarborough Jaguar XJ-S that set the 1979 race didn't leave from Manhattan, as previous Cannonballs (and the later US Express did); rather, (as commenter PatFromGundo noted) the Cannonballers departed from Darien, Connecticut. Factoring in getting out of Manhattan, we estimate a 25 minute penalty leaving Darien. Spinelli asserts it could be as tight as 15 minutes, but given the vagaries of traffic that particular morning, our NYC-area contingent is pretty comfortable with the 25 minute penalty. Which means that what Rawlings and Collins were actually dealing with was the 35:53 mark, set in 1975 by Rick Cline and Jack May in a Dino.

If the verification pans out, and according to Bullrun organizer Andy Duncan, it definitely will, Rawlings and Collins have definitely obliterated the Manhattan-to-Redondo run, and they likely outpaced Heinz and Yarborough. But there's a catch. The 1983 running of the US Express was run from Manhattan to Newport Beach, which is a longer distance than the shot to Redondo. The 10 Freeway is the main conduit from the east into Los Angeles. We're assuming that Rawlings and Collins cut across on the 10 and then took the 405 down to Redondo and then cut across to the Portofino, which is right off of PCH. In fact, pretty much any sensible route to Redondo includes the 405, even if it is a nightmarish road. From what we've been able to gather, it looks as if Rawlings and Collins ran just about 2,800 miles, vs. Heinz/Yarborough's 2855 miles.

Meanwhile, the route that Diem and Turner took in '83 spanned 2871.7. That gives Collins roughly 70-80 miles to cover in the space of eight minutes to equal the US Express record. The last time we checked, not even a V-12 Fezza with two seasoned drivers (as Rawlings and Collins are) could pull that off. The 550 Maranello has a top speed of 199mph. Which means — completely maxed out — they only could have covered about 26 miles in those eight minutes.

On the other hand, Rawlings and Collins now have the Ferrari loaded on a transporter headed for Miami in an attempt to cash in Riecke's chips. They now have to beat his RennTech 600CL. Jay and his co-pilot Byron were the second runner-up in last year's "Always First" awards, and the dudes are fast. We'll keep you posted.– Davey G. Johnson

Related:
Texas Duo Claims to Have Broken 1979 Cannonball NYC to LA Run [Internal]

NEW YORK TO LOS ANGELES, 31 HOURS 59 MINUTES [Bullrun2007.com]

Related:
All our 2007 Bullrun coverage [internal]

The rally was originally supposed to end at The Grove, one of the tonier open-air shopping areas in Los Angeles. However, at the last minute, mall authorities reneged on the deal, as they'd been doing some research on the Internets and decided that the Bullrun wasn't a "family-friendly" event. During the drivers' meeting at Fontana, David Green informed us that our final destination would actually be the Beverly Hilton, our hotel for the evening.

After a few pace-car-led laps of the track (with Danny Coyle getting reamed by the authorities for passing everyone, including the pace car) and a snack at the King Taco truck, (where they don't know the meaning of the words "no meat"), we lined up for take off. Pulling away from the starting line under escort Keri suddenly called out, "My brakes! Something's wrong with my brakes!" When she got the car stopped and threw the Audi into park, the motor immediately began revving. The gas pedal had gotten stuck under the floor mat. Emil later remarked, "I told her she should've ditched that thing at the beginning."

She tossed the offending piece of carpet back toward us and took off. But we'd lost valuable positions, considering that most of this stage would be played out in Los Angeles traffic.

We didn't have our route entirely planned out as we took off, but we knew we were heading toward the 210, as we figured the 10 would be an absolute disaster. A number of cars had similar ideas, including the consistently well-placing Darkcyd support Navigator and the Skiny/Haller A6 Avant (now missing most of its stickers due to scanner reports that police were looking for the silver/gray wagon). While on the road, we mused on possible routes aloud to ourself while studying the road atlas, until Keri told us to be quiet until we had something figured out. We let Jen handle the directions at this point, as she's a 909 resident, and thus knows the roads out there better than us.

Finally, she suggested the 605 down to the 60 and then over to the 10, which we were pretty much going to have to be on at some point. In a moment of kismet, we mentioned that were just thinking that it was the optimum route as well. So it was set, the Nav Bitch was yammering and we were off. We'd never spent so much of a stage staring out the back window. At one point, we were pretty sure we'd seen a white Crown Vic a ways back. But every time he was out of our line of sight, Keri would put a little more distance between us until he ceased to be a worry.

We hopped off at La Cienega, took Cadillac up to Robertson, then cut over on Olympic to Beverly to Wilshire. The sensation was not unlike when you're driving home and you really have to go to the bathroom. And the closer you get, the worse the feeling of having to go is. By the final stoplight, all three of us were ready to pop. We'd heard via the radio that Los Matadors (who'd taken the 10 all the way) were already there. We pulled in 18th (filmed by one of the Car-Parazzi kids), right behind Richard Rawlings' 750il. William Wu had blazed to victory on the stage, just beating Carl Lewis due to his handy-dandy little device that turned any light with an emergency-vehicle sensor green.

Now it was time for donuts.

More on the Bullrun [Internal]

An old friend of ours, coming home from the video shoot for Primus' "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" back in 1990, was in a VW Rabbit that hit a telephone pole. May the same fate not befall Richard Rawlings on this year's Bullrun. His first vodcast is above — soundtracked by the early-'90s East Bay alternahit — and he's giving away a car at the SEMA Show. El Sobrante, represent!

More on Richard Rawlings [Internal]

So the veterans of the Fourth Battle of Bullrun aren't pulling into Manassas, VA tonight, but rather Kansas City, MO, after bombing down from Chicago via Saint Louis, presumably not stopping to check out the legendary screen door of Belleville, IL. Alex Roy has been aggregating anecdotes for us, and after the jump, we aggregate further.

First in? The Johannsen-piloted Magnaflow RS4. And hot on his vapor trails were the Porsche 911 GT2 driven by Tove Christensen, with Rob Ferretti in the SuperSpeeders Ford GT in third. What's more, Ferretti has now collected three tickets. Thankfully, we are not his underwriter.

Meanwhile, Rob Rill of Team Darkcyde (whose support Navigator, driven by Jason Garber, pulled into KCMO in fourth) claims that this is the heaviest law-enforcement presence he's experienced on any rally, corroborating Richard Rawlings' earlier report, as well as seven-rally veteran Nicholas Frankl's assertion that he'd never seen such a "harvesting season" as far as tickets go.

Speaking of the Frankls, Wonder Twin Annabelle was accosted for hitting 106 mph, and Frankl's report was actually issued to Alex Roy while he was following the police cruiser to the station in their Z06 with Annabelle handcuffed in the back.

Meanwhile, the Stude is semi-offically toast at this point, with Haller and Ward motoring along in Skiny's A6 4.2. and the Studebaker most likely to finish the journey back to Los Angeles in Richard Rawlings' Gas Monkey Garage trailer. More Bullrun badness to follow. Keep clicking back.

More on the Bullrun [Internal]

"More cop cars than I've ever seen on a rally. There's some drivers doin' stupid shit, like always."
-Richard Rawlings, on his way to Kansas City, right before his phone cut out.

Meanwhile, a reader sent over these pics of the rally-types on the road near Springfield, IL, including this A8, which got nailed by the Illinois authorities for some niggling thing or another.

Related:
More on the Bullrun [Internal]

Just got off the phone with Haller, riding along with Skiny in the Audi A6 4.2. He reports that the Chicago to St. Louis lunch run has some really fast portions to it, roads where it would be theoretically possible to do 200+. Meanwhile, after almost scoring an engine last night due to the generosity of one of our readers (thanks, Steve!), Ward had us google Crower's number. He's gonna try to have the parts overnighted and see if they can't get the last two days of the rally in back in the Studebaker, which is currently travelling in Richard Rawlings' Gas Monkey Garage trailer. Best of luck, guys!

More Bullrun [Internal]

As of right now, the Bullrunners are on their way to Chicago after leaving Toronto and heading toward Windsor and Detroit. According to Haller, the Stude is most likely toast after two more cylinders went out. The car is currently on Richard Rawlings' trailer. Speaking of Rawlings, the Texan has picked up another co-driver in the form of William Woo, whose yellow Murcielago took a dirt nap on the first stage, much as it did on the Bonneville Salt Flats during last year's rally.

Also out with fuel-pump problems is Hayden Christensen's Ferrari 360, who was not spotted by any of Roy's contacts in Toronto.

The first group of cars left Toronto at the same time, with the SuperSpeeders Ford GT of Ferretti and Lehmann-Haupt arriving in at 11:55, the Collins Brothers' 550 at 12:05, followed shortly by the Reicke RENNTech CL600 at 12:10, and the Team Darkcyde support truck at 12:10. Rawlings showed up 15th.

While the Canadian police did not seize vehicles as had been rumored, they did stop all Bullrun cars and form them into a convoy for the trip across the border. From Ferretti via Alex Roy, American police have an exact car count (57 vehicles), which the only could've obtained by cooperating with Canadian authorities, who had set up gauntlets using radar and laser at the same time. Meanwhile there's apparently a nationwide APB out on the Bullrunners. Yikes. The Collinses have just been nailed for doing 150mph in Michigan.

Here's the latest, fresh from Alex in our IM window: Main Bullrun Convoy suffering major "harvesting session" at hands of Michigan PD whilst taking I-94 West from Detroit toward Chicago. Team Frankl Twins (led by former Champion Team Polizei Bullrun co-pilot Nicholas Frankl) are leading convoy of 5-6 Bullrunners on safer route southwest from Detroit via US-12 in order to take I-80 West into the Chicago House of Blues checkpoint. Team Twins (Nicholas and Annabelle Frankl) currently hold the Bullrun 2006 speed record, set at 3:18 pm, of 196mph in their silver Corvette Z06

More on the Bullrun [Internal]

Richard Rawlings, propriator of Dallas's Gas Monkey Garage and one of Bullrun's bigger 'n Texas personalities, took some time out of his rally prep regimen of struttin' and testifyin' to do an on-camera ID for a crew we believe comprised the official Bullrun documentarians for TV. Later in the day, Rawlings was forced to find a new co-pilot for his BMW 7-Series car, when second-in-command, Michael Jackson (no Bubbles jokes, please) was denied entrance to Canada due to an undisclosed prior, and he and Rawlings were possibly strip-searched. Rawlings tells it, after the jump.

He won't be joining us and there is no getting him out. I guess I'll have to rustle me up a co-pilot. I woulda stayed and got him out, but there was no gettin' him out. I need a beer worse than I've needed one in a long time. Here's your quote: 'He actually accomplished everything in one day that I thought he'd do he'd do in one week. He literally shit his pants and puked twice.

Related:
More Bullrun coverage

NEW YORK: So the initial hype is over and the action has begun. We just got off the phone with Alex Roy, who isn't competing in this year's Bullrun, but showed up in the Team Polizei M5 to escort the drivers up to Pocono and document the happenings. And happenings there were. After the jump, a gang of pics and lotsa anecdotes.

According to Alex and his photog pal JF Musial (who shot all of the photos for the story), somewhere on the high side of 60 to 80 cars showed up for the start of the race rally, and Roy reports that this year's start contained more high-end, solidly-prepared cars than in years past, including a trio of Audi RS4s, one of which, of course, was driven by Mario Andretti, as well as a couple of Spykers, one of which was piloted by Olympic hero Carl Lewis. The other Spyker, right off the bat, didn't fare so well. Driven by the company president, it got nailed by the fuzz before it reached the Poconos. In fact, according to the traffic on the Polizei scanner, the po-pos didn't have enough squad cars to respond to all of the reports of Bullrun activity.

On a lighter note, Troy Hanson, affiliated with Hayden Christensen's "Don't Fuck With The Sith, Bitch" team, ran out of gas in the Shelby GT-H Safety Car — replete with roof-mounted lights — short of the Jersey-Penna border. A New Jersey State Trooper pulled over to assist, and upon seeing markings on the Mustang indicating that Hanson was an IRL driver, the Indy Racing League-fan peace officer got Hanson topped up and then gave him a 120mph escort to the Pennsylvania state line. Whoever you are, inverse-of-Buford T. Justice, we salute you.

Meanwhile, the non-participant Polizeis were offering an escort to a peleton that included our boy Skiny in an Audi A6 4.2.

The first car out, a Saleen S7 that Alex predicted would break down, failed fifteen minutes after its departure and showed up last to the jambalaya lunch and lap of the track at Pocono.

Speaking of the lap, the Ward/Haller '54 Studebaker apparently dominated the on-track proceedings, and according to Roy, is the coolest car of the event, hands-down. We'll be blasting along in the Stude soon enough, wearing a cool shirt (and we don't mean fashionable — the thing's essentially a Cup car with a Studebaker body; needless to say, there's no air conditioning compressor hooked up to the 305-inch, 650hp small block.)

As for the favorites? The two most experienced teams on the rally are the Rawlings and Collins teams, with Rawlings in the 750il that he finished last year's rally in after his crazy-ass hot rod took a dirt nap, and Collins in a Ferrari 550. The main contender against the veterans is the Ford GT driven by Rob Ferretti and Noah Lehman-Haupt, who apparently have pretty much duplicated Team Polizei's law-enforcement-avoidance setup. Worryingly, their car — a vehicle that Noah rents out from his Gotham Dream Cars business, already has bald tires, and the GTs are legendary for blowing clutches during such events. But if they can keep it together, Roy thinks they've got a shot. The kids hit Toronto tonight.

As our date with the last few stages draws nearer, we'll keep you posted on the happenings. [Thanks to Alex and JF for the reportage and photos.]

Related:
Bullrun Madness!; Scotto On the Bullrun! [Internal]