Our friends from Latvia released the Gumball 2007 videos of their journey in the Team 50 BMW M6. The Gumball 2007 lead them from London through France, Belgium and Germany by plane to Turkey and Greece before finishing in Albania. Anyway here’s their video in 4 parts:

Part 1:

Part 2:

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Roadrally legend Kimble responded to an article in the NY times blog about the events on this years Gumball 3000. Kimble retired from the scene last year after 10 years of roadrallying and streetracing. Here is his responds to the recent events:

The Gumball was one of the best, mind blowing, adrenaline rushing, extreme and unforgettable experiences I ever had.

I finished the Gumball in first place 2001 and 2004. Max Cooper always knew that I am going full steam and he never had a problem with that. In the public he says “Its not a race, its a rally� but every participant knows that you can never do the 3000 miles in 6 days without speeding. My friends who did the rally in a Motorhome (and therefore couldn’t beat the speed limit) always arrived many hours late at the checkpoints / hotels (they missed ALL the parties) and sometimes only had 1 hour of sleep because everyone was already leaving again for the next leg.

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Team Polizei is pledging $10,000 toward the creation of a fund on behalf of Vladimir and Margarita Cepuljoski.

Other Gumballers have expressed interest in supporting the Cepuljoski family, including Team 53, who have started their own effort, and several drivers who wish to remain anonymous.

Any Gumballers or fans interested in supporting our joint efforts may contact Team Polizei at Cepuljoski Memorial
Family Fund.

More information can be found in our Gumball 3000 forum!

An open letter from Team Polizei regarding their withdrawl from Gumball 2007 and the fatal crash in Macedonia:

Team Polizei’s Alex Roy & Michael Ross feel compelled to challenge Gumball 3000 over the untenable position in which participants were placed.

At 8am on Thursday, May 3rd, 2007, Maximillion Cooper addressed a driver briefing in the Sheraton Hotel, Tirana, Albania.

Despite the disturbing rumours of the fatality of a Macedonian motorist on Wednesday, May 2nd, Mr. Cooper stated that “Gumball is often the subject of wild rumours,� after which the rally was allowed to proceed.

We question whether participants were given all facts available at that time, enabling them to exercise personal judgment in deciding whether to withdraw from the event immediately.

Today Margarita Chepunjoska passed away in Skopje Clinic Center after suffering severe injury in the fatal crash during the Gumball 3000 two days ago.

We like to give our sincere condoleances to the family.

More then 24 hours after the deadly accident on Macedonian roads, Gumball 3000 finally announced the cancellation of this years rally. After the fatal accident on Macedonian roads yesterday afternoon Gumball 3000 tried to keep it quiet as much as possible, they kept the families of Marga and Vladimir, locals, fans, drivers and sponsors completely in the dark, it took massive negative publicity in the worldwide media for them to realise the coverup failed and there was nothing else left then to cancel the rally.

This totally ignorant behavior caused a lot of disbelieve and anger among the same families, locals, fans, drivers and sponsors resulting in a big anti-Gumball campaign. Sponsors took their websites down and removed all affiliation with Gumball 3000, locals expressed their anger in our comments and mailbox, fans discussed the events on virtually every forum and message board out there and drivers announced their immediate withdrawl. They had 9 years to prepare a scenario in case something like this happened, and they were well aware of the fact that it could. However their latest two press releases show they didn’t prepare and show that to Gumball 3000 it’s more important to cover their own ass then to tell the truth. Today Gumball 3000 also spoiled it for other rally events that run with the best intentions. We like to stress that we still support the other events on this site and their organisers, it shows that a good organization that takes responsibility and does all it can to ensure safety of participants and bystanders is absolutely crucial to organize a succesful event.

Our Gumball 3000 coverage ends here…

We share our deepest sympaties with Margarita’s & Vladimir’s family.

Issued by Maximillion Cooper on behalf of The Gumball 3000 Rally - 22.30 CET / 03 May 2007

Following our earlier release reporting yesterday’s accident - As a sign of respect we have decided that this year’s Gumball 3000 Rally will not travel any further and will end in Bratislava this evening, May 3rd 2007.

As the organisers of the rally we feel that it should be stopped as a mark of respect to Vladimir Cepulyoski who died today after an accident involving one the participating drivers.

We are very saddened by what has happened and feel that it would be wrong to continue. On behalf of Gumball 3000, we once again extend our deepest sympathies to his family and we are doing everything we can for them.

This is the first time anything like this has happened in 9 years of travelling through over 40 countries with 1000’s of drivers and it is with deep regret that I make this announcement.

Maximillion Cooper

Supercars, rain, tricky roads and a rally that should have been cancelled yesterday:

This Ford GT crashed in Montenegro this morning and later today the last Porsche Carrera GT in the rally was also wrecked.

Press release from Gumball 3000 more then 24 hours after the incident. We hope more drivers follow Team Polizei’s example and withdraw from the rally as that’s the only appropriate thing to do after this tragedy…

Gumball 3000 is very saddened to announce a road accident which occurred yesterday, May 2nd, involving a participating vehicle and a local vehicle in Macedonia. Exact details are still filtering through, but below are the facts as of midday May 3rd 2007 issued by the Macedonian authorities.

An adult Macedonian male aged 67 died in hospital from a heart attack following the incident where the two cars collided. The participants in the rally were held in custody last night with a preliminary court judgement expected today.

Organisers of the rally would like to express its deepest condolences to the family of the victim for this tragic accident.

Maximillion Cooper, founder of the Rally says: “It is with extreme sadness I have to make an announcement of this nature in the events nine year history.. The event is organised with each local authorities support and permission, and drivers are under strict stipulation by abide by the laws and road regulations of the country they are driving through. It is extremely sad for this unfortunate accident to have occurred. I am informed that the incident was reported immediately by the drivers. Both drivers are extremely traumatised by this occurrence.”

We respect Team Polizei’s decision to withdraw from this years rally after a deadly accident yesterday. Here’s the message they send us:

In view of events of the past day, Alex Roy and Michael Ross of Team Polizei have withdrawn from the 2007 Gumball Rally. They are driving to Bratislava to thank the fans that have traveled from so far. They will make a further statement at 10.00 GMT.

A white Porsche crashed in Macedonia, near the city of Struga close to the Albanian border.

Update: Locals got injured in the crash, we hope they are ok.

Update 2: Driver of the Volkswagen Golf died on the way to the hospital, his wife is at the intensive care in critical condition, with broken ribs and fluid in her lungs. 24 hours after the incident still no statement from Gumball 3000.

Update 3: Margarita, passenger of the Golf and wife of Vladimir, died in the hospital today, 10 minutes before her husbands funeral. We are very sad that she passed away from the severe injuries she suffered from the crash two days ago.

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Gumball 3000 will come back in Germany tomorrow. After the announcement that Gumball HQ changed the route back to London because of the massive roadblocks and fines they got on the way to the Hahn Airport checkpoint in Western-Germany sunday night. It seems that with official driving permission for Saxonia, Brandenburg, Berlin, Saxonia-Anhalt, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia the gumballers will leave Bratislava for Berlin tomorrow like in the original route. Saturday the last leg of the 2007 rally will take them from Berlin through the Netherlands, Belgium and France back to London.

The first cars are approaching the Gumball checkpoint in Dubrovnik. You can see the cars arrive at the webcam in Dubrovnik! This years checkpoint location is the same as back in 2005 when the cars stopped in Dubrovnik before taking the ferry to Italy.

Update 15:01 CET:

It seems a lot of teams skipped the checkpoint, while others are having lunch in Dubrovnik. The live tracker keeps you informed on the next stage from Dubrovnik to Bratislava.