[EJEvo]

There's definitely some wink-wink action with those "safe speeds" mentioned on the official route book handed to all participants. Sure, you only need to average 43mph to go from Lizard Breath, IN to Smack Bottom, WY, where the next venue is, but if you want to catch 3hrs of SLEEP, then you'll need to average, um, *cough* 87mph *cough*.

We had a blast, and we enjoyed so much of it because we were relatively rested throughout. I remember seeing pics from 2003 & 2004 with guys sleeping in the pits after a 1500 mile all-night drive, dead to the world while amazing machinery is all around them. How much fun can you have and retain if you're a complete zombie? We were usually talking with our fellow competitors, taking pics, and generally just loving every minute we were there.

While 2 people is the minimum needed to participate, if you have to literally drive from event to event w/o sleep then you need 3 people - 1 to drive, 1 to read the route book and act as navigator, and 1 to catch z's. We tried napping with just 2, and unless you were on a stretch of road for an hr or more straight, it was just too difficult to try to read the book and drive by yourself. You think cellphones are distracting while driving? Try reading. Some guys tried using their nav systems instead of the OLOA routebook, but many times the nav took you off the official route, if it could find some of the backwater venues at all, which means there'll be less chance someone will stop to help if you need it, less camaraderie along the way, less seeing someone else's incredible whatever, etc. (the plus side was Johnny Law was less likely to have been put on edge by previous entries buzzing by him at triple digit speeds, but the downside was he wasn't distracted by those triple digit guys and could fully concentrate on you and your high double digits).

Speaking of comfortable, we were in a fully equipped 325i w/ heated seats, full sound deadening, a killer stereo, etc. When it poured at Roebling Road, we were able to kick on the heated seats and dry out as we drove that day. The poor suckers in the Radical were, well, stuck driving wet in a Radical, and nearly went deaf even with earplugs and helmets on throughout their time on the road (and nothing like being inches off the ground and having every other car on the road have their lights aimed directly in your face). So when you see that totally prepared and stripped barely street-legal race car in the line up, remember he'll only have several glory minutes on each track, followed by hours of agony between each track.