I t was an event as audacious as its founder, Brock Yates, the Car and Driver
editor known for speaking his mind regardless of the consequences. Five
times in the 1970s, the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial
Trophy Dash traversed the United States from New York City (or Darien,
Connecticut) to Redondo Beach, California, with the sole rule being "get
from start to finish in as little time as possible." The
slap-in-the-face to highway decorum spurred a successful 1981 comedy
based on the 1979 running (and partially rooted in truth), but now a
German writer and 1979 Cannonball Run participant, Gero Hoschek, is
working on a documentary about the actual event.
What can you recall about the famous auto rally?
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