Gumball 3000 '09
Santa Monica - Orlando
Before embarking on the Gumball 3000 I really had no idea what to expect other than what I have seen in videos and the stories I have been told by friends. Just before we arrived at the Santa Monica Pier for the start of the rally I was in our Bentley Continental GT and lost before the start. This would mark my sixth trip across America in my short few years on this Earth. The first time however with 128 other cars and a first time in a Bentley. My mission on this outing was to capture great photography for you readers at Performance Auto & Sound Magazine.The starting line to the first checkpoint was a huge blur of light for us. We rolled through the pier mid pack leaving and quickly found out our British princess was going to be a naughty one. As we leave the pier it occurs to my co-pilot Victor we have no gas and the dash is telling us “Brake Error – Turn Off Car.” What a way to be five minutes into the rally right? After some interesting navigational maneuvers we make it to a gas station on fumes and roll into the first check point in third to last place or so. Ignoring the warning lights on our car we ventured out with a fast group of Gumball cars with hopes of arriving in Las Vegas at the Hard Rock Hotel before nightfall. We made it through and safely put our head down to rest after some hours of Vegas fun.
In the morning before leaving Las Vegas the talk of the Gumball was the black Bugatti Veyron who got clocked at 90mph in a 75 and after apologizing to the cop for still being in 1st gear they took some pictures and let him go. 
After we flew past the Hoover Dam in record time (I was driving), the Rogue Status Scion tC had a major malfunction with it’s roof. The car, which was built to be a show car version of Ken Gushi’s Formula D, never really had intention of seeing the road. The race roof was only held in with two screws and wind got under it and slung the roof up into the air. The Rogue Status guys held onto the roof and we limped the car into a gas station where we covered the roofline with duct tape and gaffer’s tape to temporarily fix the problem.
As you travel east in Arizona the scenery starts to change and the state flattens out. While the miles of visibility can be a good thing for your nerves it also means the police can see you for miles. We soon hear chatter on the police scanners about a black Bugatti and two black sportsters (later we found out they were Porsche’s) traveling in excess of 170mph+. A rolling roadblock was executed and the three drivers caught, cars impounded, and the guys were locked away for the night.
The next morning most people had a hard time climbing out of bed, but we located a short cut that trimmed about 26 miles off our trip and managed to arrive at the W Hotel in Downtown Dallas while the sun was still up. Our next stop was Louisiana, as we partied and prepared for the longest leg of the Gumball 3000 rally from New Orleans to Orlando. This was going to be a hard leg, as the slower cars couldn’t make it into Orlando, FL before nightfall no matter what they did. We even found ourselves driving down some sketchy Louisiana back roads and ended up running over a huge nail.
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Luckily, it was stuck deep inside and sealing the tire so we trekked on while I monitored the tire pressure system. When we started gaining speed I heard a loud pop and a crack… the nail flew out of the tire and immediately we got an unsafe operation error on the car (our fourth one of the trip mind you.) We limped the car off the highway and wound up in front of a General Motors dealership in Slidell, Louisiana. They of course stocked no 19-inch wheels that we needed but had one on a Corvette in the showroom which they refused to sell us.
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The Bentley ended up getting fixed up after some more hours of hunting and rolled into Orlando, Florida late that night to finish the rally. As for me, that was my Gumball experience and I am ready for the 2010 rally. Hopefully a little smatter, wiser, and educated but if one thing will be changing I will not hold my faith in British engineering.
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