Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash
In 2023 while doing research on Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash,
This thread became a memorial so to speak for Brock Yates, an unusual person.....following the posts in this thread,
you will see why....
There is going to be a documentary coming
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Brock Yates we miss you......
By Benjamin Preston
By the time you hit the fifth day in the Tire Rack One Lap of America, cars, faces and events begin to blur together. But that’s the way it’s supposed to be. One Lap is an epic haul; hundreds of miles of driving for seven days straight. It’s the spiritual descendant of the Cannonball Run, and glory comes to those who can persevere mentally, physically and mechanically.
That’s about where I was earlier this month as a friend and I hit the final stretch of One Lap his 1980 Porsche 911 SC on a 3,000-mile loop through Middle America. We rose early each of the event’s seven days, spent several hours at whichever track was on the schedule, then drove anywhere from 250 to 650 miles to the next stop, usually along with one or two other cars. By the end, we were like what I imagined World War II bomber pilots had been toward the end of long missions – small talk is not necessary; speak only when it matters.
But I’m getting ahead of myself, for although everyone should know what the Cannonball Run is – or was – not everyone does.
Back in the ‘70s, when the 55-mile-per-hour speed limit was the scourge of highway travelers, a group of rebellious motorsports enthusiasts sort of took the law into their own hands. Led by Brock Yates, a racing journalist, they decided to prove a point by breaking the New York-to-Los Angeles speed record, which had not been done since Erwin George “Cannon Ball” Baker did it in 53 hours and 30 minutes, in 1933. Yates and his acolytes wished to proselytize the public to their way of thinking: fast driving and safety were not mutually exclusive, so long as the driver was skilled. So the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash was born.
Last edited by senor honda; Jul 2, 2023 at 07:09 PM.