Bullrun 2009 – Opening Day Launch – Meat Packing District – New York City

Posted by Matthew on July 12, 2009 · Leave a Comment

A special guest Flag Girl kicks off Bullrun 2009

The Start

Rally Boss, Andy Duncan, refers to the opening day launch as “Organized Chaos”. This year it seemed to be chaotic chaos. Bullrun Logistics team member, Chris Tetterton got another kind of wake-up call when he found out that he had to rework his plan to close off the street in front of the Gansevoort Hotel just hours before the launch. Imagine the thought of a 100 car launch with New York City cabs and local & tourist foot traffic flowing at a rapid pace around the hotel.

Bullrunners emerged from bed and breakfast at about 9:30AM in anticipation for the 10:30AM launch. There were vehicles scattered around the Meat Packing District which made the two-by-two or single file launch of years past slightly more difficult. In the end it worked out perfectly and Bullrun 2009 went off without a hitch.

McLaren SLR Roadster

The Bullrun Maxim Calendar Girls are an excellent addition to this years rally from a Driver and Fan perspective. The girls are very friendly and really happy to be a part of the spectacle. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of these girls end up in the cars and a few Bullrunners end up in their bus.

The Girls

Bullrun has always been great at choosing Opening Launch Flag Girls at the height of their popularity. Paris Hilton dropped the flag as did Joanna Krupa and Tila Tequila. This year Kim Kardashian was on hand to get Bullrun 2009 underway. Before she came out of the Gansevoort at around 10:15AM, there was that certain kind of buzz only Kim Kardashian could create. The photographers were literally fighting for position for the best shot possible.

Kim steps out of the Hotel Gansevoort

I was happy to have an opportunity to spend a few minutes with Kim before she came out and I have to say, she is much prettier in-person than she is on TV or in Magazines. Her and her brother, Robert, were also very polite to me as we spoke about the rally. After the barrage of press and reporters, Kim stepped into the Koenigsegg CCXR for another photo op. Now Kim has been in two 250+ mph cars in the past two months the Koenigsegg CCXR and the fastest production car in the world, the SSC Aero. I hope you all went out and bought a copy of the July Maxim featuring Kim and the SSC in a piece for Pepsi Max.

Kim in the CCXR

Then the time came for Rally boss David Green, to announce to the drivers that they need to start their engines. It all happened within a span of 5 minutes. Literally the second Kim Kardashian waved the flag, Chris Tetterton and Tim Huang started handing out the route cards as the Bullrunners used every possible Hudson River crossing on their way to Monticello Raceway in Monticello, New York.

Kim Kardashian signals GO.

Chris Tetterton gets Mike Schwab and Jason Weiss underway

Team “Oh Canada” fakes us out and leaves their signature Porsche 928 at home and bring the Ferarri F430

The First Leg – NYC to Monticello Raceway

When leaving New York for Upstate New York there are only four to go and most people chose the George Washington Bridge to the Palisades Parkway. Many Bullrunners chose to take the Lincoln Tunnel which proved to be a sightly slower option, but with a lot less activity in terms of enforcement. Chatter about Bill Goldberg being stopped just over the George Washington Bridge turned out to be true but all it ended up being was a friendly conversation.

The excitement from the launched transitioned to excitement in knowing that we were going to experience one of the nicest tracks in the United States which one wouldn’t believe was within 2 hours of New York City. Monticello’s pavement was like glass with amazing elevation changes and a perfect mixture of turns and straights.

It ended being perfect for Bullrun to have the 1st track day on the first day. It allowed drivers the opportunity to drive very fast in a controlled environment while exploring the limits of the car and comfort levels one may have in a hair-pin turn. My co-driver Neal took full advantage of the valuable track/seat time as be absolutely pushed the limits of our SL-500. We even had a nice drag race down a straight with a 911.

After lunch and track time, Bullrunners were buzzing about where we might go next. Baltimore, Cleveland, Niagra Falls and a few others were tossed around as possibilities.

At around 2:30PM the green flag was dropped again and we were off to Pittsburgh which was approximately a 6 hour drive. All was good driving south to Scranton Wilkes-Barre but once we reached Route 81, Bullrunners had to endure weather, lots of construction and highway patrol. Team W/Swine Flu Patrol took a huge gamble circum-navigating a half-hour contruction delay by going 30 miles out of the way which proved to be the right choice as they navigated to Pittsburgh in 1st place. The even had time to take advantage of their Swine Flu Patrol Car by pulling Team Canada over for a brief moment while they blew by them in laughter. The Andrews’ caught back up right away and gave them that friendly hand-gesture to let them know what they thought of Wu and crew.

Pittsburgh it is and we totally looked forward to what Party Bullrun had in store.