1975 Canon Ball Run winner

Thanks for the post, I always thought it was a Daytona that won.

 

"The most remarkable effort certainly was by American racing legend and winner of the 1967 24 hours of Le Mans, Dan Gurney, winning the second run in a Ferrari Daytona by driving up to 170 mph once. With Brock Yates as co-driver, it took them 35h and 54min to travel 2876 miles at an average of 80 mph, while collecting one fine."

"The standing record time of 32 hours and 51 minutes (about 87 mph) was set in the final run by Dave Heinz and Dave Yarborough in a Jaguar XJS."

FYI...Keith

 

Those damm Jags again!
Thanks for the info.
Is there a modern equivalent does anybody do that stuff anymore?

 

The original story of the Gurney/Yates run is here

The conclusion is that the Daytona won not because it was fastest but because it got the best gas mileage !

http://www.caranddriver.com/article.asp?section_id=4&article_id=9536

 

The Gurney/Yates run was November 1971 - there was a run in 1975 which according to one article was slightly quicker - just found this from C&D :

"In the previous Cannonball, run in 1975, two airline pilots driving a Ferrari Dino broke Yates's and Gurney's record by 60 seconds"

 

Yates wrote a book a few years back with contributions from many of the other drivers. It's not too bad, really.

 

Here's a bit more info on the "Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash" (a.k.a., The Cannonball Rally). There were actually 3 Ferraris that won 3 different "official" Cannonballs:

365GTB, Nov 15-16, 1971; Dan Gurney & Brock Yates, 35 hrs 54 mins.
246GTS, April 23-25, 1975; Jack May & Rick Cline, 35 hrs 53 mins
308GTSi, Oct 15-17, 1983; David Diem & Doug Turner, 32 hrs 7 mins (ended in Newport Beach not Redondo Beach)

I was living in Redondo Beach about 2 miles from the finish point (The Portofino Inn) when Jack & Rick won, but I had no clue until the next day when I read about it in the L.A. Times . . . still have the article but sure wish I had been there in my Dino to celebrate with them!

The FCA Mid-Atlantic Region honored these three cars and all drivers in 1991 by dedicating the FCA 1991 Annual Meet to them. Brock Yates was our guest of honor. Great event! I have a copy of the event program which contains several 1st person accounts of the 3 winning runs. Very interesting! I also have a huge map of the U.S. in my garage which shows the route that each winning Ferrari took. I made it for display in the lobby of the host hotel during the event. Unfortunately, it's quite faded after 15 years in my garage.

Bill

 

How about a photo of that map.
Thanks,
Terry

 

i am sure this is to be found somewhere obvious, but what is the s/n of the cannonball dino?

 

...very nice and interesting guy...Mr Jack May, showing his beautiful 246 GTS Dino..

His story was simple.. him and a few of his buddies, including Brock Yates (Car and Driver) decided to drive across the country between LA and NYC and the winner being the one who gets there first.... This was the start of the Cannonball Run..

He could pick a car.. any car...Mr Jack May got a white 246 Dino which he still owns today and on his wrist an 1016 explorer I which he also still owns......


In April 1975, Mr. Jack May and his friend..Mr. Rick Cline were able to drive for 35 hours and 53 min (including an hour and half "chatting" with the cops for speeding)


http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,913040,00.html
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Terry, I'll take a photo tomorrow and see if it's worth posting. I suspect it won't be legible.

Bill

 

Those look to be a nice set of legs on the park bench behind Jack and the Dino....

 

Terry, here's the map. You'll note that the legend for the map says Daytona is the green line, Dino=white and 308=red. Sorry for the fading . . . use your imagination. The red and green pretty much coincide, whereas the Dino took a different route and saved one minute over the Daytona.

Bill
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Two weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to meet with Brock Yates at a concours in Lakeland, Florida. I received an autographed copy of his book, "Cannonball! World's Greatest Outlaw Road Race".

The next day, I went to a concours in Winterpark, Florida, and there was the Dino and Jack May telling stories about his experience. Jack was kind enough to also sign that copy of the Cannonball book: "keep the pedal to the metal, and don't get caught!".

While chatting with Jack, a gentleman representing some sort of Florida driving safety council asked Jack if he would be interested giving a speech to their group. Of course, Jack May agreed.

Now that is an event I would like to attend.

 

The opinion is those records will stand as modern day land development, improvements in enforcement, and traffic density preclude any improvement.......

So don't try........LOL!

It is a good book..all the stats are there.

 

Both Brock Yates and Jack May would agree with you. They both made this point that weekend.

 

Yea, I guess there are old guys and bold guys..........LOL!

And girls...Right Bra Race team rolled a rented limo....

 

Monterey weekend this year I got busted in the F40 for doing what California's finest termed as "well over 130" mph. This was a 1 am on a deserted piece of the 101 trying to get to Carmel in time to meet some buddies. If you can't speed at that hour, when can you? Those records will be next to impossible to break.

 

What did they do to you?
55 limit in those days? Must have been hairy.

 

What did they do to you?
55 limit in those days? Must have been hairy.

 

Well, there's a lot to the story that I don't want to go into on a public forum. I will say that the F40 is a very, very fast car. I will also add the the CHP handed me a very generous gift.

I think that in those days, the cops probably didn't have as many technological aids to help nab speeders. That may have helped.

 

Actually I would disagree with that, I do the drive every year from the east coast to Monterey. We do it each year in a rented Cadillac, we complete the trip in 48 hours @ about 72 mph. (and 27 mpg). We are not trying to break any records, and we sleep for 8 hours. (Drive 1,500 20 hours, sleep 8, drive another 1,500 and you are there.)

Remember now most states are 70 mph or higher so it really shouldn't be that hard to average 80 + in a Ferrari or similar car. The key to doing it is a cooler full of Red Bull.

Joe

 

I don't doubt it for one second, when someone is used to that distance and pace, the miles fly by. The speed limit change is a major factor, increased traffic and surveillance is another. Curios though as to what speed you maintain? Most traffic seems to settle at around 80mph. I guess you hold it for 20hours?

 

Edmunds.com remembers the Cannonball and the first Ferrari win. Check it out . . . well done.

www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Features/articleId=117576?tid=edmunds.il.home.photopanel..1.*