Just a reminder to anyone interested -The 2012 Gumball 3000 is coming up in May and the route is posted!
For those who don’t know, the Gumball 3000 is an annual, 3,000 mile road rally from New York to Los Angeles. It’s a rally that lives on in the tradition of the original Cannonball Run, otherwise known by it’s proper name, the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash.
One of the my favorite stories is in October 2007 issue of Wired.The story is about the 2006 Gumball winner, Alex Roy and his transcontinental driving record across the United States of 31 hours, 4 minutes, averaging 90.1 mph.
He averaged 90 mph.
If you know how averaging works, this means Roy hit speeds below 90 mph as well speeds well above 90 mph.
My favor piece is worth a repost:

“Ultimately, this drive is a math calculation,” Roy says. Maher looks blank. Roy points to a series of cells in the spreadsheet. Maher scans it, then turns the page, searching. “See,” Roy says, “that’s the average we’re looking to hit: 90.”

“I know this average,” Maher says quietly. He flips through more pages. “I’m looking for the extended stretches of big speed, the long stretches where we can really hit it and make time.”

Roy straightens. “Well, those don’t really exist,” he says. “You’ll see. It’s very rare to run over 100 for even a minute or two… “

“Oh yeah?” Maher says smiling. “Well, I’m about to change that.”

Love it.