Projo Cars Blog

I met Don Rosendale at Lime Rock Park while covering the Rolex Vintage Festival a couple of weekends ago and he alerted me to an interesting piece he was penning for his monthly car column for Taconic Newspapers which cover most of Putnam and Dutchess counties in upstate New York.

Rosendale is an old hand at the race track being a former Sports Car Club of America (Lime Rock, Watkins Glen, Bridgehampton) and Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (Nassau, Nurburgring) driver who won an SCCA championship (C Production) in 1963.

The subject of his piece was the "Gumball rally," an annual 3,000 mile international rally which takes place on public roads around the world (as well as the domestic Cannonball Run).

The Gumball was founded in 1999 and seems to be based on the idea that public roads should be open to 100 mph+ racing by very rich amateurs.

As Rosendale writes, "The people who drove in it proclaim that this year's was a success, possibly because (unlike last year, when two innocent European bystanders died when their car was t-boned by a competitor) nobody was killed nor car wrecked."

Rosendale argues that the use of the word rally is misleading, arguing that a traditional "time, speed, distance" rally was a contest in which people in sports cars drove over a prepared route, at safe and sensible speeds, trying to match the exact, pre-established speed."

"No, these "rallies" are in fact races at insane speed, sometimes over 160 mph, on public roads, with radar and laser warning devices and overhead spotter planes to warn of police speed traps," he writes.

"Lose your license? That's a giggle to the people who can afford the ... $120,000 (Gumball) entry fees, to race in their Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Porsches at illegal speeds over the Interstate."

Rosendale is particularly incensed that The New York Times has written about the rallies as something exciting "... without a single line of copy about the dangers and deaths."

"The Pope of the Gumball is a Brit named Maxmillian Cooper, who organized the first "rally" in Europe in 1999," Rosendale writes. "Its American Cardinal is Alex Roy of New York City, who actually published (to be fair, a very well written) book, called "The Driver," recounting his experiences in talking his way of out speeding tickets by claiming to be a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman (or Italian caribenieri, depending on the locale; he paints his car to look like a cop car and calls himself "Team Polizie)."

Rosendale takes the NYT to task for reviewing Roy's book "... with a scant mention that what he and the others were doing is illegal, unsafe and insane."

"Probably because there are more open roads out West, this year's Bullrun started in San Francisco in July, and the Gumball from the same city the next month," he writes.
"The Times reports on a Bullrun driver in a Mitsubishi Lancer cruising at 130 (mph) in a two lane highway: 'That's the way we like to drive. No cops, open roads, beautiful scenery.'"

"But is this 'racing'?" Rosendale asks. "To me, road racing is coming through Turn 1 at Watkins Glen and feeling the rear end of the car slipping out a little bit, and wondering if the next lap around you can go a little faster without losing adhesion and hitting the safety barrier."

"It's doing 120 mph in the dark and rain in a long distance race, with the wipers barely keeping the windshield clear, hugging the right side of the straightaway because any second there will be someone blasting by at close to 200 m.p.h. in a Ford GT."

"But neither the guys in Fords and Porsches nor I would be endangering anyone else, like the poor couple in Macedonia last year who had the bad fortune to pull onto the roadway in the middle of a Gumball race and be t-boned."

"The other drivers on the track with me would have passed physical exams, three or four "drivers schools" under the critical eye of an instructor, then get a provisional license that would let them drive in local races, but always with three pieces of tape on their right rear fender, to warn others that they were novices so watch out."

"But the sole requirement for a Gumball or Cannonball kind of rally appears to be the ability to ante up the entry fee and own a Ferrari."

But then there are the parties. Rosendale quotes a friend of his who explained "...that it's not all just driving illegally fast on public highways, but that there is a bash the end of each day in the destination city."

"There are very rich guys, with very expensive cars, lots of women and very good parties," he quotes his friend as telling him.

Good show!

- Peter C.T. Elsworth

 Tags  Commentary racing

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