Date:         Sat, 19 Apr 2003 11:09:48 -0700
Reply-To:     pensioner <al_knoll@PACBELL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         pensioner <al_knoll@PACBELL.NET>
Subject:      Re: Sea to shining sea
In-Reply-To:  <200304191316.h3JDGQeI084510@mta1-int.prodigy.net>
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The 1970s were a time of war, frustration, and an overall need to be heard.
Some of the most poignant and radical rock and roll music, art, and ideas
emerged from this decade. One of those ideas: the Cannonball Run.
While government officials were intent on tackling "anti-auto" legislation
with regards to highway safety and emissions, a league of rebels came
together to form one voice: a voice that wanted to prove to politicians (or
at the very least, to themselves) that top-speed driving was not a threat to
the people, but was in fact a more efficient and defensive form of
automobile transportation. Brock Yates, the mastermind behind the Cannonball
events, had no idea at the time that this voice would resonate for decades
to come.

APRIL 1, 1971: IN THE BEGINNING
In early 1971, Brock Yates, an American with, as he describes it, an
"anarchistic streak," attempted to assemble a troupe of racers to take on
the wide-open highways of the US in a timed coast-to-coast race. On April 1,
1971, Yates was the only one who showed up at the Red Ball Garage on East
31st Street in Manhattan to get started. He runs the race with no
competitors, travelling in a 1971 Dodge van with two associates and his
15-year old son. He completes the trip in close to 44 hours.

Yates, at the time a writer for Car & Driver magazine, then wrote a piece on
the trip and his experiences -- and the "Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea
Memorial Trophy Dash" was born.

NOVEMBER 15, 1971
Just after midnight on November 15, 1971, starting once again at the Red
Ball Garage in New York City, six souped-up vehicles screamed onto the
streets of the city and headed west. Picking up two more entrants along the
way, the race was won by a Ferrari Daytona driven by Yates and Dan Gurney of
Santa Ana, CA. Their car blasted into the parking lot of the Portion Inn at
the marina in Redondo Beach, CA after taking a mere 35 hours and 54 minutes
to cover the 2863 miles from New York to Redondo Beach.

This race had only the following rules: "All competitors will drive any
vehicle of their choosing, over any route, at any speed they judge
practical, between the starting point and destination. The competitor
finishing with the lowest elapsed time is the winner." And what did the
winners receive to commemorate this occasion? An S-K "Nutmaster" trophy, a
"free-form" sculpture comprised of wrenches, hammers and pliers that was
fabricated and donated by the S-K Tool Company.