Gumball 3000

History of the Gumball

The Gumball 3000 rally is an annual 6-day, 3000 mi (5000 km) car race.

History

In 1933 legendary motorcycle racer Mister Baker, had crossed the United States coast-to-coast in 54 hours, earning him the nickname Cannonball. He had had an annual race ever since 1914 (when he needed 11 days), and bettered his time ever since. In the 1970s motor journalist Brock Yates of Car and Driver magazine had started the Cannonball Baker Sea To Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash in honor of Cannonball. The first race was held on April 1, 1971, and first prize was a Gumball dispenser. The first race was won by Baker and Dan Gurney, former race driver for Formula One and Le Mans, who drove a Ferrari. They needed about 35 hours from New York to L.A. These events inspired the 1976 movies Gumball Rally and Cannonball, as well as sequels such as Cannonball Run, Cannonball Run 2, etc. The original Gumball race was finally canceled in 1979. Drawing inspiration from the 1970s race, the movies and Smokey and the Bandit, Maximillion Cooper started the modern edition of the game in the summer of 1999. Gumball 3000 has since gained the reputation as being the ultimate road race for the modern era and has captured the attention of the world as a part of todays popular culture. With celebrity participation the public have been bought closer to the race by witnessing it on everything from MTV to reading about it in Vanity Fair.

Races

1999
The original race featured 50 among Cooper's friends, and went from London, to Rimini, Italy and back, passing through Paris, to the beautiful Chateau d'Esclimont, before lapping the Le Mans race circuit, followed by a checkpoint at the Mas du Clos Ferrari Museum, then [[Monaco Grand Prix circuit in Monaco, the Ferrari Factory in Modena, the Ambras Palace in Austria and the Hockenheim Grand Prix Circuit in Germany before returning to London to cross the finish line on Park Lane. The winner drove a 1963 Jaguar E-Type. Other drivers included actors Billy Zane in a 1964 Aston Martin DB5, Jason Priestley in a Lotus Esprit V8 and Dannii Minogue in a Porsche Boxster.

2000
The second rally was held in May 2000. Beginning at Marble Arch in London and continuing to Stansted Airport, where all cars and people were airlifted to a private airport in Spain. The rally then progressed through Bilbao, Cannes, Milan, Hotel Bühlerhöhe Castle near Baden-Baden (Germany), the Nürburgring GP circuit and Hamburg before returning to London. Notable entrants included drum and bass legend and James Bond villain Goldie in an Aston Martin V8, It girl Tara Palmer-Tomkinson in a Jaguar XK8, Great Train Robber Bruce Reynolds in a Bentley, the indie band Placebo in a Lagonda, the Happy Mondays all crammed into a 2+2 Jaguar, and Maximillion Cooper in the famous Bentley Arnage 1WO.

2001
The third rally, held in April 2001, featured 106 cars, including Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O and part of the cast of Jackass driving a 1989 Jaguar XJ6; F1 World champion Damon Hill driving a Lamborghini; comedian Vic Reeves in an Mercedes-AMG; Lord Montagu of Beaulieu in a Blower Bentley and Maximillion in an original Shelby Cobra. The rally progressed from Hyde Park Corner in London to Berlin, Malbork, Vilnius, Saint Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen before returning to London. Kim Schmitz finished first in his Mercedes Brabus SV12 Megacar. Select portions were broadcast as an hour-long Jackass Gumball 3000 Special on MTV and received the highest viewer ratings of the year.[citation needed] Ruby Wax also broadcast coverage of the event for terrestrial TV in the UK on BBC1, and wrestled with Chris Pontius of the Jackass crew.

2002
The fourth rally was held in April 2002, the first to be run outside Europe. The rally went from New York to the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, passing through a checkpoint at the White House in Washington DC, onto Memphis, Tennessee for lunch in Elvis Presley's Mansion, Graceland, before getting a Dallas Cowboys welcome in Texas, onwards to Cadillac Ranch, Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas, Nevada before reaching the Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills where Hugh Hefner and playmates awarded trophies. 175 cars entered the contest, including a 1960s Corvette painted in the Stars and Stripes that won best car award, the 1959 Ferrari California Spider like the one in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off that was bought at a cost of over $1m just to take part in the Gumball, as well as old American muscle cars taking to the road with modern day supercars. Fashion designer Donna Karan, models Amy Wesson and Rachel Hunter, and actor Matthew McConaughey were amongst the competitors. The winners were Nicholas Frankl and Nick Connor, who, despite being arrested and imprisoned for multiple safety infractions, were released on bail and flew to the finish line in their prison outfits.

2003
The fifth rally was held in May 2003, with more than 100 cars from San Francisco, California to Miami, Florida, passing through Reno, Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada, Tucson, Arizona, White Sands, New Mexico, San Antonio, Texas, Houston, Texas, and New Orleans, Louisiana. It featured Jackass' Ryan Dunn racing a rental car alongside skateboard legends Tony Hawk in a Dodge Viper and Bucky Lasek, Motocross World champions Travis Pastrana and Carey Hart, and supermodel Jodie Kidd. Cars included a mix of Ferrari F50s and 360s, Lamborghini Murcielagos, a Koenigsegg CC Supercar and Jesse James' custom VW Eurovan.

Alex Roy won the Gumball Spirit Trophy in his Team Polizei BMW M5, decked out in German Police Gear. "Fastest Wheels" was awarded to Rob "Lonman" Kenworthy in a Porsche GT2. A Special Award was given to Richard and Sue Rawlings in their heavily modified Chevy Avalanche.

2004
The sixth rally was held in May 2004, back again in Europe. The rally went from the Eiffel Tower in Paris to Biarritz, Madrid, Marbella, then crossed over to Africa, (via Gibraltar) to Marrakech in Morocco as guests of the King, before returning to Spain for the Barcelona Grand Prix, finishing in Cannes at the film festival. 192 cars took part. Ex Boxing world champion Chris Eubank drove a truck, whilst The Pianist Academy Award winning actor Adrien Brody favoured a Porsche and the 'Ai Ya' Boys just rented a Winnebago RV. Rob and Big Black of MTV2 drove in the race in a rental car. This race is on the Gumball 3000 DVD.

Gary Lutke and John Docherty won the coveted Spirit Trophy in the Citroën 2CV. First place went to Kim Schmitz in a Mercedes CL3000. The Style Award went to Alex Roy's Team Polizei 144, this time dressed as Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The Safety Award went to Torquenstein for surviving a near fatal Dodge Viper crash in Morocco. Former Champion jockey Richard Dunwoody and journalist Clement Wilson entered in a Volvo V70R and wrote an account entitled "Our Gumball Rally" published by Virgin Books.

2005
The seventh race started at Trafalgar Square on May 14, 2005. It went 3000 miles from London to Brussels, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, and then to Dubrovnik in Croatia. The cars were then transported by ferry to Bari, Italy, then lapped the old Targa Florio circuit in Sicily, before heading north to Rome and Florence, and finally crossing the finish line in Monaco's Casino Square prior to the F1 Grand Prix. Participants included Daryl Hannah, rock stars and supermodels driving everything from the Dukes of Hazzard General Lee to Ferrari Enzos and Mercedes SLRs.

The Spirit Trophy went to Sue Bellarby & Kathy Huddart, whose Caterham 7 broke down just shy of the finish line. They were picked up by Gumball Legend Alex Roy (http://www.gumball144.com/) and transported to the finish line in his "Guardia Civil" BMW M5 (http://www.teampolizei.com/) and came in 2nd dressed as a Spanish cop.

This year's unofficial winners were Greg & "Kalbas" in a Mercedes 2004 CLK-DTM, who edged out a week-old Mercedes-Maclaren SLR whose engine blew up just short of the finish line. Source: M5 Board (http://www.M5Board.com/)

2006
The 2006 rally was the most ambitious of any Gumball 3000 rally, starting in London and finishing in Los Angeles just 8 days later. The organizers flew all 120 cars from Europe to Asia and on to the USA in 3 Antonov An-124's and an Iceland Air passenger Boeing 757. The rally began on April 29, 2006 in Pall Mall, London, and continued on to Vienna, Budapest and Belgrade. The drivers then boarded a plane in Serbia and landed in Thailand for the rally's second leg between Phuket and Bangkok. The final leg occurred in the United States between Salt Lake City to Los Angeles, via Las Vegas, where Snoop Dogg performed live at the Gumball party.

Entrants included Jackass stars Ryan Dunn and Bam Margera, driving Margera's 'Billy Idol' customized Lamborghini Gallardo; Tony Hawk, Mike Vallely, and Rooftop Escamilla in a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8; blink 182's Travis Barker drove his Rolls Royce Phantom with DJ Swizz Beatz; Dirty Sanchez used a Japan-Tuning style Nissan S15 Silvia; Dan Joyce, Matthew Pritchard, and Love Actually star Martine McCutcheon drove a pink Range Rover; and American television host Matt Johnston drove his custom 2006 Dodge Charger, among Gumball's regular assortment of eccentrics, celebrities, millionaires and billionaires from all over the world.

Team Polizei's Alex Roy & Michael Ross dominated Gumball 2006, arriving first in Belgium, Vienna, Budapest, Furnace Creek and Beverly Hills, even beating Gumballers that skipped the intermediate checkpoints[citation needed]. Team Polizei, suffering from both Ed Leigh's sabotage and accident damage in Thailand, did not participate in the Thailand leg and made a surprise visit to the Burmese border, where pictures were taken with border guards who thought Team Polizei were UN inspectors.[citation needed]

Torquenstein returned despite his serious accident in the 2004, driving a rally ready Ford GT. Modifications included a smoke screen and three GPS units[citation needed]. Torquenstein and navigator Dr Gruene arrived second in Belgrade, eighth in Thailand and arrived simultaneously on the final stage with the Team Polizei Bentley driven by Alex Roy and Michael Ross.[citation needed]

The Spirit Trophy was won by Damian Williams, Richard Blackburn & Ezra Chapman of Team 15, who crashed a camouflage Rolls Royce Phantom at approximately 160mph just north of Belgrade. The team allegedly rode 500+ miles in a cab across Thailand, then received a brand new Rolls Royce Phantom in Salt Lake City and drove to the Beverly Hills finish line. Upon arriving at the Playboy Mansion with the twisted grille from the first Phantom, Hugh Hefner presented the duo with a fitting trophy, a Gumball machine.

2007
The 2007 route was scheduled to travel from London to Istanbul, via Amsterdam, Munich, Tirana, Dubrovnik, and Athens. Over 100 contestants were scheduled to drive through 16 countries in 8 days. The entrance fee for the 2007 rally was GB£28,000 (US$55,060) for first-time drivers.[10]

Upon arrival in Holland, On April 29, the Dutch police awaited the participants with 14 police cars and 7 unmarked cars. Seven pilots including rapper Xzibit lost their driver's licence for speeding with over 50 km/h more than allowed and two cars were confiscated. The Dutch government has forbidden streetraces by law, although rallies that are performed within the law (i.e. participating in a rally without a competitive element) are not forbidden. The next day, the German police stopped about 70 cars for speeding violations; they were escorted off to the airport. A police spokesman told the media that the information about the racing route had been available on the official Gumball 3000 website.Following the complications with the German police, the Gumball drivers were flown to Istanbul, but the Antonov planes set to bring their cars was diverted to Athens. The drivers were then flown to Athens the next day, but four teams (Team Polizei, Team Turkish Taxi, Team Aytac, and Team 15) chose to drive the distance in other vehicles.

On May 2, a traffic accident occurred near the town of Struga, Republic of Macedonia. The Techart Porsche 911 Turbo of Nick Morley and Matthew McConville hit an oncoming Volkswagen Golf (Some reports contend a speed of 200 km/h or more, while others doubt such a speed would be practical given the poor road condition). According to media reports, they tried to escape the country afterwards in a BMW M6 with Russian car number plates via the nearby border post. However, they were stopped and arrested by the police, and will be held in custody until their trial has begun.[16] The casualties reported in the accident were the 67-year old driver of the other vehicle, who died on his way to the hospital, and Margarita Cepunjoska, wife of Vladimir Cepunjoski, who died in hospital from injuries sustained in the crash on May 4. The organisers initially continued the rally despite the incident, in a later official statement the organisers stated that the clear details of the incident and confirmation of a fatality didn't occur until some hours after the briefing, at which point the decision to cancel the remainder of the rally was made. The rally was cancelled because of the accident on the evening of May 3. The following statement was released by Maximillion Cooper on the official website, explaining his decision to cancel the rally:

"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."

Nicholas Morley was released from custody on £17,000 bail, but was later re-arrested in Skopje while attempting to leave the country using a private jet.[22] The subsequent court hearing found him culpable in the deaths, passing a suspended sentence. [23]. After the verdict Morley's family released a statement [24] detailing its own expert's findings, which contradict those of the prosecution's expert. The statement also claims that the defence were denied the opportunity to present their expert's findings, which could contravene article 6 of the European convention on human rights, the right to a fair trial. An appeal may be made.

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