Did Rawlings and Collins Break the Transcontinental Record?
"Cannon Ball" Baker
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.
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