As the new Audi R8 V10 is on the horizon, the tricked out V8 model that featured in last years Bullrun is being offered for sale. It includes most of the gadgets that the team used on last years run from Calgary to Phoenix, and the list is pretty comprehensive! It’s also a winner of Bullrun’s coveted “Best Vehicle Award”. Watch Alex Roy’s reaction when he had a poke around it in the video we’ve attatched and take a look at the list of equipment. Thanks to Matthew for the tip off!
As we all know, Bullrun is and annual rally running in the US, this year from New York City to Austin, Texas. Whilst this runs on a regular basis, the reality shows seems to be less so with only one season airing so far, back in 2007. It?s back this year, having held castings in 2008 and filmed in late 2008. It starts exclusively on Speed TV (only available in Canada and the US) on 19th February with Goldburg returning once again as the show?s host. We’re looking forward to seeing it but to give you a taste of whats to come, we’ve included some trailers in this post…
Today, we thought we’d update you on the 2009 edition of the Bullrun Rally. It’s running from 10th July - 17th July 2009 and takes in from New York City to Austin, Texas. Thats 1,750 miles (2,816 Kilometers) point to point, no doubt there will be a few twists and turns to take in some of the sights, much like there was last year! Other than the start and finish location, Bullrun HQ are keeping the route a secret, both to fans and competitors so it’ll be a suprise for everyone as to where they end up every night!
7 days of driving and partying will greet the lucky participants. Among them will be the Trackstar Racing team, an exclusive club for celebrity drivers who are to announce their team closer to the start date for the event. The organisers are saying that the “Entry fee is $20,000 per car and covers you and your co-driver for your rally entry, accommodations, all meals, parties, rally apparel for the week of the rally”. Were looking forward to it!
Ashley van Dyke send us her experiences from the time she spend on the Bullrun earlier this year. The Bullrun started in Calgary and finished in Scottsdale, Arizona 7 days later. Ashley joined up with the pack in Las Vegas. We hope you enjoy her writeup:
Another season of Bullrun started for me in Vegas when I met up with the gang coming down from Calgary. My Z06 was accompanied by the Destination X team with Wu in the Hummer and a Jeep of camera personnel. We hit our first check point at Spring Mountain Ranch, my personal sponsor and good friends, with breakfast and track time. We spent 2 hours on the road course while the Hummer was dealing with over heating issues. I was also taken out in a Radical for some pretty insanely fast lap times. Pushing on through the hot temps we left Spring Mountain heading straight through Death Valley. We were worried about the Hummer and especially our Street Fire buddies as they were in an open top Cobra. Richard Rawlings was the one with the worst luck as a fuel leak line left him on the side of the road but lucky for him the Destination X Jeep and Wu in the Hummer stuck it out to provide help. They later made it to the Sofitel Hotel in Beverly Hills around 9pm at night after I had long had dinner was on my way to the 944 party.
After 7 days on the road the Bullrun 2008 has finished in Scottsdale, Arizona. The last two days of the rally the Arizona Troopers gave the Bullrun pack a really hard time, that’s why there’s been a little delay in our coverage. Now most of the Bullrunners have left the state we can post up more stories from Bullrun 2008 in Arizona.
Earlier we had a chat with Ashley van Dyke about her arrest. “We’ve had such a terrible time out here in the Phoenix and Scottsdale area. I was on a radio show giving an interview when I was pulled over! They heard the cop tell me to turn off my engine and get out of the car. The drive was long too but everyone is having fun and enjoying the adventure as one big family.”
“Within five minutes of the start of the second leg the scanners were going off that there is an all points bulletin to pull over the green Hummer. The Z06, Team Spring Mountain, was pulled over for a dealer plate that was Nevada and apparently told not valid in Arizona. The Sergeant warned us that a Hummer was filming the run and they are seeking to confiscate the video tapes and cameras and impound the Hummer. After a few phone calls the Hummer received word and decided to pull off the highway onto an Indian Reservation where the Arizona Highway Patrol has no jurisdiction. After an hour of hiding out in a corn field the rest of the Bullruners were unable to reach or receive word on the status or whereabouts. Around 9PM the Hummer pulls into the hotel Bullrun style. It was a beer bash of Miller Lite greetings and a safe return…btw the Hummer looked a little different.”
The final day of the rally was an easy but hot one, the first checkpoint was at Lake Roosevelt. Everyone was alarmed from the events the day before so the cruising speeds were lower than normal and everyone was weary of more DPS run-ins like the day before. After the lake it was on to the Harris Ak-Chin Casino, Bullrun organisers set out a route over the 30 mile long Apache Trail, for supercars a different route was suggested. But the driver of the Aston Martin DBS decided to take his chances and was in for a rough ride over the winding dirt road. At the Harris Ak-Chin Casino the Bullrunners had lunch and played some Black Jack The Bullrunners had to get 21 in order to receive the next route card which took them to Firebird Raceway. Ashley van Dyke reported: “I took out the Z06 a few times but the heat was almost unbearable and my tires were very worn making the car squarely. The final run into Scottsdale was less than 30 miles from the track. We parked out cars in Old Town and headed off the pool to cool off.”
The rally finished at the Valley Ho Hotel in Scottsdale with a party with great food and a lively prize giveaway bash. Everyone had a lot of high energy and excitement to party one last time with all their Bullrun friends.
To wrap up our coverage we’ve collected all the Bullrun 2008 news, links, pictures and videos we’ve found over the past week:
To kill the dull moments at the last day of the Bullrun we’ve made a gallery with all Bullrun 2008 pictures we’ve found so far. And to give you an impression of the overall rally we’ve sorted them by checkpoint location.
Just got word from Ashley van Dyke running at this year Bullrun in a Corvette Z06. She got pulled in Arizona and kept in handcuffs for over an hour before being released with a $600 ticket. She’s now limping to the checkpoint in Tuscon. We already found a warning send out to troopers in Arizona posted at the Bullrun forums: “Be on the look out for a bunch of “higher end” cars racing on the the 101 or 51 or I 17. From Friday 12pm till sun . Don’t want another showing of a guy doing 219mph in Arizona. Watch out for miss coding.”
Ashley was fourth to arrive at West Coast Customs this morning. The Team Streetfire Cobra had a busted oil cooler and were towed to LK Motorsports, they hope to catch up later.
Update: Team Streetfire is back on the road in a Nissan 350Z.
Today the Bullrun teams are leaving the Sofitel in Los Angeles and headed for Tuscon, Arizona. The first stop for breakfast and fresh routecards is at West Coast Customs. Last night the Bullrunners arrived at the Sofitel after a stop at the Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Nevada. Most of them still hungover from the party at the Moon Club in Las Vegas the night before, it was on to the next party, this time at Studio 944.
Ashley van Dyke told us she had a great first day behind the wheel. “I was 5th to the checkpoint at Spring Mt Ranch from leaving the Wynn in Las Vegas. Great day of driving for me…no tickets or pull overs for my team.” Sadly this couldn’t be said for all the teams. Richard Rawlings broke down again with his Chevy Caprice, this time in the middle of Dead Valley! Again the fuel pump caused the problem. Luckily the Team Wu Hummer, that broke down at Miller Motorsports Park, was fixed and together with Team Streetfire in the Cobra they stayed back to help Rawlings. Sadly no luck this year for Bullrun-veteran Rawlings, but he’s not giving up yet. After being towed back to civilization, the car was transferred onto a flatbed and brought to West Coast Customs, where they hopefully have a good fuel pump in stock.
This year it’s harder than ever to find news and updates about the Bullrun. Back in 2006 a simple Google query gave hundreds of articles about the Bullrun 2006 and the latest news from the road. Hopefully the last three days of the run will bring the fans more update about this years rally. Here are a couple press articles on the Bullrun 2008:
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, with help from local sheriffs, put a damper on the annual Bullrun Road Rally this weekend by issuing speeding tickets to racers including the event’s safety car. Police nabbed a Lamborghini at 194 kilometers per hour (121 mph) — 94 kph over the limit — near the town of Black Diamond, southwest of Calgary, staff sergeant Mark Brown said. “They were running in a fairly tight bunch,” Brown, of the High River, Alberta, RCMP detachment, said. “If you stopped one, the others kept moving.” Sun Sentinel - June 25, 2008
A pair of Spyker C8 Spyders along with more than 70 other exclusive supercars will make their way through Tucson Thursday and Friday as part of the week-long seven-city Bullrun Road Rally. The cars are scheduled to arrive Thursday between 6 and 7 p.m. at Loews Ventana Canyon Resorts, 7000 N. Resort Drive. That will be followed by a party at the resort beginning at 10 p.m. Arizona Daily Star - June 25, 2008
Exotic cars congregated on downtown’s Stephen Avenue on Saturday for the start of the fifth Bullrun Road Rally. “Calgary was attractive for some logistical reasons, and the city has a very good developing downtown area,” Duncan says. “Calgary’s not a small city in terms of its population, but it has a small-city feel with a youthful nightlife.” The rally stopped in Big Sky, Mont., Saturday night, and carries on to Aspen, Colo., Park City, Utah, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Tucson, Ariz. before culminating June 27 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Calgary Herald - June 22, 2008
After driving more than 2000 miles in four days (Calgary - Big Sky - Aspen - Park City - Las Vegas) the Bullrunners partied the night away in The Palms in Las Vegas last night before heading back to the Wynn to get a couple hours of sleep or in worst case pick up their luggage and car keys for todays leg. Today the Bullrun circus heads from Las Vegas to Beverly Hills with hopefully another stop at a racetrack.
Sadly not every car survived the past days cross-country. Mr. Angry drives a Ford Fusion after his matte black 1969 Dodge Daytona was send back to New York with a broken wheel on the first day of the rally.
The only Hummer in this years Bullrun, belonging to Team Wu, broke down at Miller Motorsports Park after doing a couple laps around the track. Oil covered the track and parking lot when the front differential mount came loose, rotated up and punctured the oil filter.
Tonight GTspirit-friend and rally veteran Ashley van Dyke joins the Bullrun in Las Vegas. Together with co-driver Spencer Sharp she takes out a Calloway Race Edition Corvette z06 to give the other teams a run for their money. Destination X TV will follow the team during the last three days of the rally and their footage will be aired on local and national tv later this summer.
Last year Ashley van Dyke did the Playersrun together with Team Polizei co-pilot Jon Goodrich. Over the next coming days you can expect updates and photos from Ashley and her team.
For those of you who can’t wait for the next update we recommend watching this drift video with Ashley behind the wheel:
Finally some first updates by the Bullrunners. First the bad news: Team Angry’s Daytona broke down during some wheel problems. Mr. Angry rejoined the Rally on Sunday, but the Daytona is getting shipped back to New York for repairs.
Today, on day 3, the Bullrunners are heading towards Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah for their first checkpoint. We are pretty sure, that the participants will take the chance to give their cars some fast laps there!
For more updates, videos and pictures visit our Bullrun forum!
John Coyle of CarDomain joins Team Jeep during their Bullrun 2008.
He reports about Day 1: ‘Day one was a whopper. After leaving Calgary at at 9:30AM, we traveled 45 miles to the first checkpoint, and then drove 167 miles to the American border. We had amazing pulled pork sandwiches for lunch in Whitefish, Montana, and wound along the edge of Glacier National Park before stopping for the night at the Big Sky Resort. The journey was over 600 miles, and everyone on team Jeep was glad to get out of the car and have dinner. Most of the rally participants arrived safely, but along with Mr. Angry’s Daytona incurring a wheel failure, Wiji’s near-miss with the cops, and my trusty little Casio taking a dump, there were two other incidents worth mentioning. Just before the final stop, a couple of guys in a Ferrari 430 rear-ended a Corvette, and as 7:30 this morning, Richard Rawlings and his Caprice had not yet appeared. The Ferrari is out of the running, but the Corvette and the Caprice—which had a fuel pump issue—are expected to continue. Oh, and team Jeep came in tenth. Hell. And. Yes. I’m getting ready to hop back into the Jeep, but stay tuned for more coverage of the 2008 Bullrun!’
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