[Shotimes] Re: Cannonball!

[Donald Mallinson]

Here is the explanation about the name.  Some people tried 
to name a movie after the Cannonball, not the old movie, one 
more recent.  I think Brock was in danger of loosing his 
trademark if he didn't use it more.

For those that may not know, the "new" One Lap events are 
NOT that far removed from the old Cannonball.

Yes the Cannonball was an all out run for the lowest time 
from point to point across the country, where the new One 
Lap is driving from race track to race track where you 
compete for points.  Where the new event resembles the old 
one is that the "transit" between tracks is designed so that 
you can officially stay close to the legal limit, but only 
if you almost never stop and don't get held up.  AND if you 
desire to walk the track or see it at all before you have to 
line up, you have to drive like hell to get there.  The time 
between tracks is JUST enough so that if you take off 
immediately after your "run" and drive straight through, you 
then get there just in time to line up and run again.  No 
sleep, no scouting the track, and almost no time to prep the 
car or even unload it.

So when we did the event, our lowest interstate speed was 85 
mph.  If we really pushed it we could gain enough that we 
could get a motel room and get maybe 2 hours sleep and a 
shower.  Most of the time we slept in the car at the 
entrance to the track and took showers at the track.

The One Lap is only "easy" if you do it for fun.  If you 
desire to win a trophy or place near the top you must have a 
pro driver, a very good car (which we had) and you must be 
prepared to give up sleep and risk life and limb and 
pocketbook to make time.

And the main and only "rule" that Brock spouts is that there 
"are NO rules" (other than the limited class rules of course!

It was fun, I would never do it again seriously, but might 
consider it as a fun run someday.

Don Mallinson

Dave Kegel wrote:
> Nah, that's way different than the old Cannonballs they ran.  I'm in the
> middle of reading that book as well.
> 
> The Cannonballs were an all out street race, to see who could get from
> NewYork to California the fastest.  Highly illegal.
> 
> The One Lap goes from race track to race track and competes on the track.
> 
> Dave Kegel