Another fabolous update from Team Darkcyd about day 4 with the final destination Savannah – Georgia:
Yesterday was alot of fun especially in the morning. We all lined the cars up and while people were milling about got the status report after we left the club. Well apparently the locals were quite upset that they were kicked out of the club for no reason. I could discern other than somebody wanted it to be for just Bull Runners. I thought this was a really bad move and we left as soon as it was announced. So when the party venue for alot of people changed to outside the club at house party’s which Tara and I had no part-( we went to bed) So it appeared there was going to be a fight, and although I do not now what transpired, I was told their was some pretty shocking behavior going on primarily initiated with the locals and some Bull Run participants, and we will leave it a that. The local guys were a little upset about their treatment and the apparent friendliness the Bull Runners were receiving from some of the ladies. So it appeared there was going to be a fight, and at least some of my guys left before anything involved them.
Alex and I lined up at the start in Staunton Virginia for the first stage, and Tara and Danyell drove the Darkcyd Gallardo. Since I was not going to drive and Alex was looking to try out my car I was happy to see what the car could really do . We were headed to the Blue ridge Parkway and I was excited because this is some of the best driving in the united states. We launched and very quickly were in the top 10 running to Concord north Carolina motor speed way. The cops were pretty aggressive, and their were at least 2 arrests that I know of in Virginia, which they all should of known was a bad state to speed in . Bulent and Peter in the Darkcyd DTM got pulled over and harassed for over an hour because the cop insisted they had a radar detector , which is illegal in the state. The system which is a k40 is built into the car and has sensors in front and rear on the bumper. Bulent who was warned twice about a cop at mile marker 90, forgot to slow down probably because he was too focused on driving. The cop started getting relly agressive and even started open the fuse panel boxs to disconnect things. The cop had them turn on the car which would have been a dead give away, but as soon as he did so an 18 wheeler past he he did not hear the silly audible alert which says something like “k40-armed”. This is also when Peter got mad, because they cop would not stop looking and pulling various wires and basically said that if he screwed up the $400k car of which there is only 4 in the country, he was gonna have the police department pay to ship the car to Germany. The cops backed down and wrote Bulent a ticket and they left.
Alex and I we so happy about our position which after about an hour was top 3 running with “Dr Wu” in his Purple Murci , Team Ricci in their CL65, and us that we forgot to take the route for the Blue Ridge parkway and that was a huge penalty for me as I wanted so badly to drive the Murci there. On the way we needed to make a pivotal turn from one highway to the other and a guy named Mark from the Bull Run TV show (which I think is really bad and has nothing to do with the rally), who was helping us and his daughter by running ahead in a rented unmarked car needed to know whether to go left or right. The Darkcyd Race Semi driven by Patrick who was ahead of us told me one direction which was left, but my navigation was saying right, so I instructed Alex to tell Mark left while I was on the phone, and at the last moment I shouted no-right and we switched and veered hard right which was way too late for him. He thought we intentionally cheated him to beat him and his daughter was driving th Trans Am on from the reality show. I apologized later for the mistakeand all was forgiven. We eventually rolled into Concord 1 2 3 togther and about 2 miles from what was the destination our tank read 0 miles left. So rather than have a huge problem running a very expensive car out of gas which would not be a simple refueling because we would have an issue with the fuel injection system which would be costly and troublesome, we abandoned our position to get gas. It turns out had we not, we would have run out for sure because the Navigation point I said up was about 7 miles too short, and there is no way we would have made it. It also turns out our 1 2 3 place was usurped by clausse in the Porsche Cayenne once again, who took a differnt route altogther. My pal Claus is quite the mad German. Like Peter, driving must be in their blood. This is a guy, that last year did not even have a radar detector, and this year that isall he has. No scanners, jammers, recon cars or anything. He just drives pretty much drives all out and almost always makes it first. He also has had very little issues which confirms once again you need to be first or last. Anything in between and you have issue. The German blood is a little different then our I think. lol
The girls were not too happy with us because they rolled into the speedway about 20 minutes later and felt we ditched them. My comment was what kind of idiots would ditch 2 very pretty girls driving a Lamborghini. all was forgiven for that as well, and Tara drove the Darkcyd Murci to the final checkpoint in Savannah at the Mansion on Forsyth Park (one of the nicest boutique hotels I have ever been)which was uneventful, since we kept the speeds relatviely low which is also one of the prettiest cities in the states. the only issue I had at thwe hotel was when I walked into the Bar who was one of the two guys who broke the sea to shining sea record. I went up to him and said basically you are a cocky guy guy and I did not think you would break the record but not only did you do it you beat it by an hour” He was ok with that comment and we shook hands. I then commented how I thought is was shameful that them breaking a record, and they got no significant press. I thought what he did was a significant achievement breaKing a record almost 30 years old, and he just snapped. He started freaking out on me and it really come close to blows for no reason. Thank goodnes he partner who also broke the record Dennis Collins was a little more rested understood correctly that I was not dissing them,but rather simply stating I thought they were short changed, and he backed off. He later apologized and I having a pretty good idea of the stress he is still feeling, easily forgave the incident.
We got word last night that our Japanese friends had their car impounded out of Atlantic city for registration problems. I do not know the details but feel really bad for them.
This morning we cross in to Florida and I know the end stop is in Orlando. I thing it is highly probable our lunch checkpoint is at Gainesville Raceway because I know we have a track day today and there is not many options based on Geography. I thought it would be Robling road just outside of Savannah, but it was confirmed a motorcycle event is there.
So for our friends in the Orlando and Gainesville area, we hope to see you there.
Cheers,
Robb
