I feel like I’ve been gone for two months with so much happening in just ten days.  Here are the final stats:

• Miles Traveled:  4,000 plus
• 1 Retired Daytona
• 1 Retired Ferrari
• New clutch for Ferrari: $8,000
• Rallying with my dad:  Priceless
• Rallying with good friends (Mke, Pete, Ty, Gabe, Ken):  Priceless
• Making new friends(Kriss, Marash, Frankl’s+many more):  Priceless
• Rallying with my son Taylor:  Priceless

Was it all worth it, you bet.  We’ll be back next year, but possibly in a new format.  Stay tuned.  I will post several pictures once I get the “bug” worked out.  For all of those who contributed, thank you.  For those of you who have not, there is still time.  Cheers.

-Team Angry F430

For the final day, I had Taylor riding shotgun with me, which was off the charts.  We had a blast together.  We went through Tequila Flats which is a 25 mile long dirt road, this was the one time I didn’t miss having the Ferrari.  We destroyed the Corvette.  From there we headed to Harrah’s Casino for lunch.  After lunch we headed to Firebird Speedway in Phoenix where we had a track day.  Having missed the track day in Las Vegas, I couldn’t wait to hit the track.  After five hot laps, the safety controls in the Vette shut down the car-my bad.  After the track, we went proceeded to the Finish Line in Downtown Scottsdale.    We finished the day a strong fifth, Taylor put the smack down on Ken.  Then it was off to the awards banquet.

We started the morning at West Coast Customs, which is quite a site.  They had many, many, many cars that I’d like to own. The Shaq Mobile was totally outrageous.    From West Coast Customs we made our way to a pit stop in Scottsdale and headed to Tucson.  In Tucson, we met up with Team Ford, who witnessed all the Bullrunners coming in to the final checkpoint.  Thankfully, we made a respectable showing, coming in eighth place.  Of course, Ken drove this leg of the race, and took full credit for our best showing thus far!

After a long night in Vegas, we slept in as the Ferrari was not due to be fixed until early afternoon.   The other Bullrunner’s left for a track day.  At 1:00 pm we were informed that “Fedex lost the package with the o-ring seal” and car wouldn’t be done until Thursday afternoon.  We threw up the white flag and proceeded to Hertz where we rented a black C5 Convertible.  Not quite a Ferrari, but it wasn’t bad.  We raced to Los Angeles where we caught up with the Bullrunner’s at Crudo’s for dinner.  After dinner, we went to Sky Bar and caught up with Bullrunners from year’s past.  We finished off the day with an 2:00 a.m. snack at Mel’s Diner on Sunset Boulevard.

Without a car, we piled into the Ford Fusion and headed 450 miles to Las Vegas. As we knew the final location was the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, we skipped the mid-day checkpoint and arrived in “first place” in Las Vegas around 4:30 p.m. It was nice to arrive at a final destination before 10 p.m. and to have a day without incident. Bullrunners spent most of the evening at the Playboy Club and Moon nightclub at the Palms. The F430 spent the day on the rack, we are hoping to get the car back tomorrow and catch up with the Bullrunners in Los Angeles.

We left Aspen at 9:00 and headed 440 miles toward Miller Auto Sport Park in Utah by Salt Lake City. My dad took the helm of the F430 and absolutely ripped. I have some serious blackmail material on my old man now. We arrived at Miller Sports Park, had some lunch and proceeded to an autocross track event. The good news is that I came in second amongst the Bullrunners, the bad news is that on the final time trial, the rear of the F430 shot out a flume of blue smoke and the gearbox seized up. We were able to limp back to the Stein Erickson Lodge in Park City Utah, where “luck” would have it, a flatbed truck was there unloading another damaged Bullrun car. The driver, “Cletus” as we call him, was a rock star and agreed to flatbed my car overnight to Las Vegas to have it repaired. After sending the Ferrari to Vegas, Park City welcomed us with open arms, to a large citywide party downtown.

We started day two pretty badly beaten up, but quickly improved as we headed through Yellow Stone Park and the Grand Tetons, the views were absolutely spectacular. From there it was a flat out sprint to Aspen, Colorado. On the way, my dad was driving the CLS 55 AMG and was ticketed for excessive speed. Yup, that’s right, the old man got a ticket before me. Team Angry F430 pulled away from the pack when the team was pulled over by a Wyoming trooper for “not moving over into the fast lane when passing a trooper on the right shoulder”. Are you kidding me? He gave us a warning and then the real truth came out as to why he pulled us over. After giving us the warning, he asked if he could take pictures of the car as he trains new recruits at the academy. The stop cost us approximately 20 minutes, but that was nothing compared to the tire failure that occurred a few minutes later. The right tire blew out, shredding the front right tire. Luckily we had a spare in the trunk–but Ferrari in their infinite wisdom doesn’t have a jack or lug wrench. After 90 minutes fellow Bullrunners got us the requisite tools and we marched on. However, we went from the front of the pack to near the back. After 720 miles of driving, we reached our destination at 11:30 p.m. Another long day.

The Daytona finally made it to the starting line in Calgary and “Team Angry” consisting of a ‘69 Dodge Daytona, 2005 Ferrari F430, a 2008 BMW 325IX, a 2008 Audi R8 and a 2005 Mercedes CLS 55 AMG, headed off at 9:00 a.m. Ty in the Mercedes was the first to get nicked prior to crossing the border back into the U.S.-a minor infraction, but a ticket none-the-less. On our first day, we drove over 760 miles and finally reached Big Sky, Montana at approximately 10:30 p.m. The day took a toll on the Bullrunners which say an accident that totalled two cars-a Ferrari F430(not mine) and a Corvette. And the biggest blow of all, the Daytona was also retired from the rally. The rim split and caused a fatal tire failure. Mike and Pete had the car towed to Great Falls, MT where it will remain until it’s shipped back to New York. Mike and Pete rented a Ford Fusion and rejoined the rally at 3:30 a.m. in Big Sky, MT. A very painful way to start the rally.

I am having problems uploading pictures. Will add pictures shortly.

After getting the gas tank out after midnight, the next big question was, “where do we get a new tank”. We’re hundreds of miles from nowhere and need a gas tank for a ‘69 Dodge Daytona, not looking very promising. When all wasn’t looking so good, Mike connected on a long shot and contacted a Mopar guy who lived in Montana who just happened to have a full gas tank assembly that he was preparing to put in his own Charger. Not only did he provide us his parts, but he drove over 500 miles to get us the tank at 5:30 a.m. in the morning. Mike slept in his car all night to await Tim and the parts. Car was up and running at 9:00 a.m. and we headed to Calgary. Many, many thanks to Tim, who went well beyond the call of duty to keep us rolling.

On our way to Calgary, we stopped for gas in St. Mary’s, Montana, which is 13 miles south of the Canadien border. While filling up the Daytona we noticed gas pouring out of the bottom of the tank. The tank grommet had split and we were in the middle of literally nowhere in dire need of a new gas tank. Mr. Angry became Mr. Angrier and then Mr. Angriest. Mr. Angry and my dad worked on the car until after midnight to extricate the gas tank–that is after siphoning 45 gallons out of the tank. Since we were in the middle of nowhere floodlights were used to light the way.