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Text and Photography by Jon Mikelonis
January
21, 2002 , San Francisco, CA - From
April 17th through April 22nd 2003 the Gumball
3000, a cross-country road race, will take part
across the USA. A field of over 200 high performance
cars will converge on San Francisco to begin the event
that ends in Miami six days later. The race is made
up of 5 legs. Rather than an all-out race across the
country the event uses segments to stimulate camaraderie
between drivers. Don't get us wrong this is a very serious
event with cars and drivers being shipped from all over
the world. In fact, about 85% of the cars and drivers
participating are of European origin. Ferrari's and
Porsche will make up a vast majority of the cars with
a smattering of Aston Martins, BMW's, and Lamborghini's.
This leaves about 5% of the field to American cars of
which most will be Corvettes. These statistics are only
estimates based on last year's participants since the
starting grid has not been formally announced.
The race was first launched
on European soil by Maximillion Cooper in 1999 and was
inspired by the liberating and infamous 70's American
movie classics "Gumball Rally" and "Cannonball
Run".
Southern Boy Realizes
a Dream
Last year a dream was realized when the event was
to be run in the United States for the first time. Kevin
Mikelonis, a huge fan of the movie "Gumball Rally"
and an even bigger fan of the Ford Gran Torino decided
to make some mods to a nearly stock '72 Gran Torino
Sport. See photos at right. Once Kevin made contact
with Maximillion Cooper and gave him his story, the
founder of the event was happy to welcome Kevin and
his under appreciated piece of Ford muscle into the
event.
The 2002 Gumball 3000
was run from Rockefeller Plaza in New York City to Los
Angeles with stops is Nashville, Dallas, Albequerque,
and Las Vegas. Kevin faired well with his best performance
between Houston and Santa Fe, finishing 14th in the
150 car field.
This year, with the
modifications shown to the right, Kevin along with copilot
Tommi Kukkonen plan to be serious contenders in a race
among some of the most exotic sports cars in the world.
FordMuscle™ will be there for the start of the
race in San Francisco on April 17th to record all the
pre-race action with a special focus on Kevin's Gran
Torino and other Ford participants. F/M
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