The Race
The object of the Cannonball Baker was to leave the Red Ball Garage on East 31st Street in New York City, later a venue in Darien, CT, (the now defunct Lock, Stock, and Barrel restaurant, located in the Goodwives Shopping Center) usually after midnight, and drive to the Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach, California in the shortest time possible. Those were the only rules. Nothing was specified as to the route, type of vehicle, or maximum speed permitted. (There was a gentlemen's agreement that the vehicle entered would be driven the entire distance - no having it transported on another vehicle, nor having an identical second vehicle stashed away, etc.) Speeding citations received along the way were the driver's responsibility and did not disqualify the vehicle (although having to stop to receive a ticket increased the vehicle's overall time).
The Cannonball Run was technically a race in that the fastest time was declared the "winner" and the results were announced in order of time, but times were not taken very seriously. And it was found that sheer speed frequently did not guarantee a first place finish.
Read more about this topic: Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash
Famous quotes containing the word race:
“Many are engaged in writing books and printing them,
Many desire to see their names in print,
Many read nothing but the race reports.
Much is your reading, but not the Word of GOD....”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“These battles sound incredible to us. I think that posterity will doubt if such things ever were,—if our bold ancestors who settled this land were not struggling rather with the forest shadows, and not with a copper-colored race of men. They were vapors, fever and ague of the unsettled woods. Now, only a few arrowheads are turned up by the plow. In the Pelasgic, the Etruscan, or the British story, there is nothing so shadowy and unreal.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)