Fare Well Brock Yates

[Burning Petard]

RIP. Brock Yates was a long time editor for Car & Driver Magazine. He had major responsibility for the 'Dan Gurney For President" campaign and the 'Cannon Ball Baker Sea to Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash" That became the Cannonball Run and included such things as a Congressman passenger (Congress critters cannot be stopped while traveling to and from their district on official business) and fake police cars with removable stickers, a van filled with a giant fuel tank and Depends to do it non-stop. I believe the first one had Yates and Gurney as drivers in a Ferrari. They won.

Yates died Oct 5.

[Burning Petard]

Side note. This may have marked the beginning of the slippery slope that has brought us to the tragic-comedy that is the presidential election next month. Daniel S. Gurney was unfit for the office, not even minimally qualified. He was too young, as plainly stated as a qualification for president in the constitution.

[dales]

Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash ca. 1972

[Econoline]

Correctamundo, SG.

From Wikipedia:

A remarkable effort was made by American racing legend Dan Gurney (winner of the 1967 24 hours of Le Mans), who won the second run in a Ferrari Daytona. Gurney said, "At no time did we exceed 175 mph." With Brock Yates as co-driver, it took them 35 hours and 54 minutes to travel 2,863 miles (4,608 km) at an average of approximately 80 mph (130 km/h), while collecting one fine. Snow in the Rockies slowed them down considerably.

The record for official Cannonballs is 32 hours and 51 minutes (about 87 mph), set in the final run by Dave Heinz and Dave Yarborough in a Jaguar XJS in April 1979.

I remember reading the accounts of each of those races in Car & Driver. To quote the Beach Boys..."FUN FUN FUN, 'til her daddy takes the T-Bird away."

[Bicycle Bill]

And from that, we got these:
       



Incidentally, one of the cars used in the "Gumball Rally" film was an actual 1966 427-cid Shelby Cobra and had been leased to the studio by then-owner Les Lindley.  It was later rediscovered as a 'barn find' in 2011, having spent most of the intervening years indoors and under cover in Lindley's garage, side-by-side with a second 1965 289-cid Cobra competition car with less than 5000 miles on the clock.



I've also learned that the ambulance driven by Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, and Jack Elam in the "Cannonball Run" film was the same ambulance that Yates and Hal Needham customized and used in their failed 1979 attempt (they had to drop out with transmission problems in Palm Springs .... so close!) to win the real Trophy Dash.

-"BB"-

[Jarlaxle]

And it became the One Lap of America...

[Econoline]

IIRC, one of the entrants in the first One Lap Of America drove a rented Chevy Caprice...the rental came with "unlimited mileage".

[Jarlaxle]

And another was a former New Jersey Bell foreman's car, a 1969 Plymouth Valiant 100.

Best result was fourth overall, losing out only to a hand-built Mosler Raptor, a $250,000+ RENN-Tech Porsche 911, and a Lingenfelter-modified Corvette. Mopar Action tech editor Rick Ehrenberg did this using 40+ years of knowhow...and factory Chrysler parts down to the wheel bearing grease!

Wait, what?


And yes: the Valiant DOES wear New York vanity plates "NUKE GM".