BULLRUN 2012 – AWARDS CEREMONY!
After an exhausting and exciting week on the road, the Bullrunners of 2012 headed over to the Geisha house in Los Angeles for the official Bullrun awards ceremony.
The Bullrun awards range from the BOM (Bullrun Order of Merit) award and DTA Rogue Award to the Bullrun Navigator Award. Every Bullrun award recipient is carefully chosen.
Andy Duncan and David Green took to the stage to announce this year’s highly-anticipated trophies.
Bullrun Order of Merit:
The Bullrun Order of Merit Award is given to the team or teams that took a truly unique approach to the rally and are worthy of recognition. Sometimes the award goes to the team that encountered mechanical issues, but manages to be on the road every morning. Sometimes the award goes to the team who did the rally in a crazy vehicle. Overall it’s about their Bullrun journey. This year the award went to a few teams:
Team Wu and Team Texas were the recipients of the BOM Award. From the start of the rally, Team Wu and Team Texas waged a prank war on the Dudesons. Every day they came up with a variety of pranks for the Bullrun drivers. They drove in a bizarre vehicle – a rental 12-seater van decked out as a Border Patrol van. The Wu/ Texas pairing definitely deserves the BOM award this year. They certainly made the rally just that much more fun!
Team Oh! Canada in the plaid-wrapped Ferrari 360 received the BOM award this year for being good sports and for the genuine Bullrun-effort they put forth. Kevin and Christine Andrews, our Canadian Bullrunners, could not be cooler people. Every single day Kevin humored us by trying to ‘sell’ his car to us – while wearing a plaid suit. Oh those Canadians! Congratulations to Kevin and Christine for being such great Bullrunners!
Team Pamplona, Tim Hodges and Matt MacLean, in the Bullrun Shelby GT, also took home the Bullrun order of merit for their efforts on this year’s rally. They drove that Shelby like they owned it, had a great time at the parties and had a blast on the rally! We hope to see Tim and Matt Bullrunning again in the future!
Reno-Fernley Raceway Bullrun Hot Lap Award:
This year at the Reno-Fernley raceway checkpoint, Bullrun held its annual hot lap challenge. The award is given to the driver who had the fastest lap around the course.
Of course, there’s one guy who has been vying for this award and stopped at nothing to get it. He drove a brand new 2013 Porsche 991 on the rally and wore footy pajamas on the rally. Congratulations to Drake Kemper for having the fastest lap around the track. Drake knows his racing line – he races Porsche’s for a living. Excellent driving Drake!
Oregon Raceway Hot Lap Award:
The team that had the quickest time around Oregon Raceway, and held their own against even the best of supercars, was Randy Brown and Aaron Guardado of Team DTA – driving the matte black BMW X6 M. Their vehicle of choice on this year’s rally encompassed both comfort and performance. Even with a roof rack fixed to the top of their SUV, the DTA boys still tore up the track and took home the Oregon Raceway trophy!
Fresno Race Room Trophy:
During the Fresno Raceroom checkpoint, the drivers got a chance to hone their racing skills on a state-of-the-art racing simulator. The fastest Bullrunner around the virtual track received the Raceroom trophy. Of course, who is better-suited to win this award than Drake Kemper? Well he took home the trophy after annhialiating the other drivers on the simulator.
Bullrun Tripple Crown Award:
The Bullrun Tripple Crown Award is for the individual driver whose performance at all Bullrun track events was top-notch. This year we saw some amazing driving on both track events and the Raceroom virtual track event – but one driver stood out as the best overall performer. As a rac ecar driver, this comes as no surprise. Drake Kemper took home this award after being the best overall technical driver on this year’s Bullrun track events. Nice job Drake!
Rookie of the Year Award:
Every year Bullrun has plenty of returning teams and a whole new crowd. It can be tough to find your way in the rally when you have no idea what you are doing – but this year we had one team that really excelled! Dino and Roberto in the Ferrari California were true class acts this year. They drove that Ferrari hard and held their own at the parties. Bullrun welcomes new teams each year, and Roberto Fata and Dino Angelis are very welcome additions to our Bullrun family!
Best Performing Female Team Award:
This year we had a total of seven female teams driving in the rally, so we decided to hand out an award for the female team that drove the hardest, navigated the quickest and partied the hardest. One team stood out from the rest – constantly arriving at the Bullrun checkpoints well ahead of many teams. They only had a map and a GPS unit to assist them in their travels, but they were still contenders. Team Karma – Gina, Diana and Chi – took home the first ever Best Performing Female Team Award.
DTA – Don’t Trust Anyone Award:
This year the DTA Posse decided to hand out the Don’t Trust Anyone award to a rookie team that encompassed the true Bullrun spirit. The team that won this award was able to keep up with the boys and even place a lot higher than them. This team had a number of top five finishes, navigated very strongly and contributed a lot to this year’s Bullrun atmosphere. Team Karma, Gina, Diana and Chi, was the recipient of this award! Congratulations ladies!
CEC Hottest Car Award:
Every year, Claus Ettensberger likes to hand out an award for the hottest car. Some teams go all out decking out their ride for Bullrun. This year we saw many cool wraps on the cars and many mods. But the crowd favorite this year was Michael Schwab’s blue camouflage Porsche Panamera Turbo! The camo wrap drew a lot of attention to the car, and we certainly think that it’s one of the coolest wraps we’ve ever seen. Obviously Claus thought so too! What will Schwab bring on the rally next year?
Bullrun Navigator Award:
The Navigator Award is one of the most sought-after awards in the road rally world. The award is given out to the top three navigationally superior teams. We all know that Bullrun is not a race, it’s a rally – so navigation is key! This year there were many contenders for the award. We saw some great driving and some decisive decision-making this year. But the top three teams stood out from the rest. They were very consistent every day and all wanted the award very badly.
3rd Place: Wahe and Greg – Red 2012 Porsche 911
2nd Place: Ricky, Billy and Shaun – Silver Renntech Mercedes ML63
1st Place: Seth and Tony – White Nissan GT-R
Though it was close, Seth and Tony edged out the Big Easy Banditz, making them the official award recipients of 2012. Seth and Tony are the first team ever in rally history to claim the navigator award back-to-back and the second team to have won the award twice in their Bullrun career. Congrats gents!
Spirit of the Bullrun Award:
Every year, we award the Spirit Award to the team that exhibits the true spirit of the rally. We select a team that everyone likes, contributes a lot to the rally and is generally a really fin team to be around. This year we had plenty to choose from – but one team stood out! A team on a mission! They came all the way from Finland, they drove in a pig named Britney and they wore crazy costumes every single day! They are the Dudesons!
Jukka, HP and Jarppi had one crazy adventure this year. Just days before the rally, their beloved pet pig Britney died on their ranch back in Finland. They did Bullrun this year in Britney’s memory – created a very special Britney-mobile, dressed as pigs and brought Britney’s ashes with them to scatter along the Bullrun route. They parties hard, got along with the other teams, waged a prank war on the Wu’s and entertained us from start to finish. The Dudesons really deserved the Spirit Award this year!
That’s all for our Bullrun 2012 coverage. I would like to thank a few people for making this Bullrun.com daily rally coverage possible:
Jeb Lopez: Thank you so much for constantly feeding me information and photos throughout the week. This blog would not have been possible without you. You helped me out so much! You’re my biggest source of Bullrun information, and I appreciate all of the information you provided me with! Thank you!
Tony King: Thank you for the countless twitter posts and photos that I was able to use to create this Bullrun blog. Without your constant updates and photos, this blog would not have been what it was – so thank you!
Drake Kemper: Thank you for tweeting during the rally and providing updates and photos that I used for the Bullrun blog. Without your help, I could not have done this blog.
A special thank you to the following people for updating the Bullrun facebook and twitter pages throughout the week:
-Jeb Lopez/ Team Wheelz Up!
-Seth Rose and Tony King/ Team Hudson
-Drake Kemper/ Team NoLa Rollas
-Christina and Nicole Demas/ Team Texas
-Chi Pang and Diana Spencer/ Team Karma
-Jennifer Nicole/ Team ID Agency
-Brittney Boddington/ Team Remix
-Allen Wu/ Team Wu
-Ricky Chancey and Shaun Viola/ Team Big Easy Banditz
-Jukka Hilden/ Team Dudesons
-Ryan Lowe/ Team War Wagon
Most of all, thank you to Andy Duncan and David Green for putting on this amazing event and involving me in your rally
