Alex Roy - Driving Career - Transcontinental Record

Transcontinental Record

A prior record for crossing the U.S. from New York City to Los Angeles of 32 hours, 7 minutes was set in 1983 by David Diem and Doug Turner during the US Express, an unofficial successor to the Cannonball Run. The record was unofficial and never documented or confirmed. When documentary filmmaker Cory Welles called it to Roy's attention, he decided he should be the one to break it.

Roy and co-driver Jonathan Goodrich, his longtime friend, completed a practice run in December 2005, finishing with a time of 34 hours and 46 minutes. A subsequent attempt in April 2006 added a spotter plane, but the failure of his M5's fuel pump ended the run in Oklahoma. On October 7 of 2006 Roy and replacement co-driver David Maher, a New York investment banker (who was also his 2003 Gumball co-driver), embarked on another run. On this, the successful 31:04 run Roy claims 2,794 mapped miles and 2800 road miles - which he covered at an average speed of 90.1 mph. The run took place over Columbus Day weekend so as to meet minimal traffic, in part for safety; they also avoided any type of reckless driving such as tailgating, although they reached top speeds of 160 mph. Roy's route, which hit only four toll booths, three or four red lights, and only one close call with the highway patrol in Oklahoma, ended at the Santa Monica Pier.

The record was witnessed in part by Davey Johnson and Mike Spinelli, contributor and managing editor of the automobile blog Jalopnik. The time was recorded by a time clock which was punched as they left New York and flown to California before they arrived.

Another rally driver team, comprising Gumball veterans Richard Rawlings and Dennis Collins, claim they beat the record in May 2007 at 31:59 on a 2,811 mile route; they also claim that Roy did not "stick to the route" of the original Cannonball Run. Alex Roy, on the other hand, claims that almost every year's route was different, and that the only rule was total time point-to-point. The 31:04 record was set with sufficient margin to break the record even with the same route as the longest ever cross-country race. The originator of the Cannonball Run, Brock Yates, does not acknowledge any records or sanction races due to his concern that "somebody was going to get killed". Roy expresses similar concern with regard to anyone attempting to break his claimed record.

In October 2007, Roy published a book on his racing career, The Driver: My Dangerous Pursuit of Speed and Truth in the Outlaw Racing World (Harper Collins, ISBN 978-0-06-122793-6). Information on the record-setting run was withheld until publication.