OTEC decided to add something new to the Fall Classic this year: The first annual running of the "Gumball Relay".  Patterned after similar events, most notably COCOA at Willow Springs, this is a relay event that pits teams of similar cars in a fun, low key competition, with nothing to win but a cheapass prize at the Saturday night Doo Dah!

Gumballers getting their last minute instructions!

The relay works like this: We have 4 teams of 5 cars each, broken up into Early Shelby/Mustang, Late Model Mustang, Misc Ford Powered and of course Brand-X.  These teams all line up side by side in the hot pit in single file.  At the signal to go, the first car from each team blasts onto the track. We use a staggered start, so as to spread the cars out.  Each car takes two laps and then must come back into the hot pit and stop as quickly as they can without going over a limit line.  At that point, they have a sprinter who then runs a 50 yard dash up to the remaining cars, at which point the second car takes off for it's 2 laps.  This is repeated until al l5 cars have completed their 2 laps, or their runner keels over from exhaustion!
 
 

The starting lineup:  BrandX on the left, Ford Powered, Late Models and Early models.

 
 
 
 

Brand X: Jan Orme 1996 Leon the Neon Dennis Patton 1982 Corvette GT1 Peter George 1998 Ferrari 355 Challenge Steve Toth 1998 Pontiac GTA Tony Williams 1963 Corvette	Misc Ford Powered:  Steve Swanson  2000 Panoz GTS Rich Mason 1964 Cobra "Fliptop" Michael Brunelle 1965 Cobra replica Jim Wells 1965 Shelby Cobra 427 Rick Carlile 1965 Mercury Cyclone
Late Model: Guy Cunningham 1989 Mustang Marty Udisches 1989 Mustang Steve Fontenot 1992 Mustang John O'Boyle 1994 Mustang AS Steve Perkins 1995 Mustang Cobra R Timer:  Kim	Early Mustang: Luc Noel 1966 GT350 Replica Fred Maggiora 1967 Mustang Rod Creger 1967 Mustang TA replica Ed Reinert 1967 Zebra Mustang GT1 Jerry Schott 1966 GT350 replica

PS  Yours truly neglected to get the names of all the runners/timers/crew members.  Let me know who they all are and I'll add them here.

Talk about a lame start.....Ed didn't tell us the Zebra was going to need a push.
You notice I'm not pushing.........
 
 

Rod Creger knows how to light 'em up!!
 
 

Late model runner Russell "LightSpeed" Rosales comes up for the tag!!!

 So how did it turn out?  Well, here's the official results:

Misc Ford Powered:    22:50
Early Shelby/Mustang: 22:59
Late Model Mustang:   23:07
Brand X:                23:15

Now that's only 25 seconds between first and last..only a 2% spread. Pretty close.  Close enough that a fast runner could make the  difference between victory or defeat....I should also mention that we hand picked the teams.  Which explains why the Brand X team of Corvettes, Ferraris and a GTA car included a 4 cyl, front wheel drive Neon.......

Thanks to all the participants.  This is an event we will be repeating.

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