In 1933, motorcycle racer "Cannonball" Baker crossed the United States from coast-to-coast in approximately 54 hours. In the 1970s, Car and Driver founder and editor Brock Yates started the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash in his honor. The second race was won by Yates and Dan Gurney, a former Formula One and Le Mans driver, driving a Ferrari Daytona. They needed about 36 hours to transit from New York to L.A. These events inspired the 1976 movies The Gumball Rally and Cannonball, as well as sequels including Cannonball Run, Cannonball Run II, etc.

The "Cannonball" race eventually was canceled in 1979 due to a combination of media attention and pressure from political influences and police organizations who were concerned about road safety. With these facts in mind, we define Spirit as the team that best demonstrates an understanding of the history of open road rallying, and comes out of the rally as the most positive and uncontroversial. This is the determining factor for teams that complete all answers correctly and finish by the specified time.

 The Story of Erwin 'Cannonball' Baker: 

Born Erwin G. Baker but nicknamed Cannonball, he discovered after buying his first motorcycle that he had exceptional stamina and endurance. Tall, lean and lanky he could outride any of the riders of his time.

 Erwin didn't hit the public record until it became apparent that he could out-race anyone on a motorcycle. He was a tall man with amazing powers of endurance and strength that propelled him to the front of a number of dirt-track motorcycle races and led to his later career as a record-setter.

Before turning to motorcycle racing, he actually had a short career in vaudeville but in 1904 after winning his first motorcycle race, he quickly changed careers. He bought his first motorcycle, and Indian brand bike in 1908, and likely took his most famous checkered flag in 1909 when he won the first ever race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He later raced at the speedway again in the Indy 500 in 1922, placing 11th.

Perhaps his greatest claim to fame were the bevy of cross-country record-setting rides in a variety of vehicles. He raced across the US when paved roads were a luxury only found in developed cities and he had to pack gasoline into some remote locations by mule. He crossed the country 143 times on motorcycles totalling over five million miles of riding.

He got the nickname "cannonball" from reporters in New York in 1914 after a record setting trans-continental ride. This was a comparison to the famous "Illinois Central" train which was immortalized by Casey Jones.

Likely his most famous ride was one from New York to LA in 1933 in a record time of only 53.5 hours. This record stood for almost 40 years and inspired a race which later drove the creation of several TV series and movies titled "Cannonball Run."

Before his death in 1960, Baker served as president of NASCAR, promoted all kinds of automotive and motorcycle products through his record-breaking runs across the country and continued to race occasionally in a variety of formats. After his death, he was inducted in the American Motorcyclist Association Motorcycle Hall of Fame and he will always be remembered for his incredible stamina and the excitement his runs generated at the time.

Transcontinental crossing:

In 1912, Cannonball began his training for what would be the first transcontinental crossing of the North American Continent. After a tour of the southeast, he departed from Florida aboard a steamer and rode the island of Cuba. Another steamer trip landed him on the island of Jamaica, and yet another put him upon the Isthmus of Panama. He rode across Panama and boarded a ship and sailed to San Diego. With his return to the states he had ridden over 14,000 miles. He continued his training on the west coast by competing in endurance runs and road races.

In 1914, his plan began to come alive. Back then, the roads were not much to speak of and could quite easly be rained out or vanish all together. Baker enlisted the help of a goverment weather clerk to help him devise a route to place him between the weather fronts.

A letter writing campagin ensued to help devise a detailed map for him to find the roads, bridges and gasoline that he would require to accomplish his goal. Where gasoline could not be found, he had burros pack it in. He estimated that the cost of fuel at the remote locations would be as much as 70 cents per gallon. Then, on May 4, 1914, only 3 months before the first world war, at 9:00 am, Cannonball Baker, dressed in leather riding trousers, a short raincoat and a khaki shirt, packing a special canteen that held 1 gallon of water, put his V-twin in gear and headed east and made it all the way to Yuma, AZ with a sandstorm at his back.

He used an old Indian trick to combat thirst. By placing a small dime-size stone under his tongue, he could go for great distances without requiring a stop for water. With this method, his water cache of 1 gallon lasted the entire route.

On day two of his historic cross-country journey, Cannonball Baker was making good time across Arizona and after crossing the Castle Dome Mountains, he then ran into an "area made up of rocky gulchs, deep washes and great quantities of sand." Only miles outside of Agua Caliente, he ran out of gas and forced to push his bike in 119 degree desert heat.

The third day of Baker's trip took him through Phoenix, where his friends laughed at the "pop-gun" pistol he had brought along and they replaced it with a Smith and Wesson .38 cal long. While riding through the Indian reservations at Fort Apache he was greeted by a pack of dogs that acted more like wolves and he was forced to "drop two of them in their tracks in order to get by."

With his arrival in Albuquerque, he thought that he had covered the toughest part of his trip, crossing the great desert. But then after 86 miles of mountain climbing he found himself held back by a large mountain stream. An entire day was invested into finding a place to cross, without completely dousing his motorcycle. After pushing the bike through the water, his journey continued.

Outside of Dodge City, Kansas, driving upon what he considered to be "good roads" he suffered 6 flat tires all at the hands of nails upon the road. Near Ellsworth, Kansas, a large shepherd dog persued his machine. "This dog seemed to have a great desire for my goodyear rubber of my front tire. Still Cannonball Baker's desire was stronger. "The dog took a fall out of me which put me in bad shape, as I slid along the road upon my elbows and knees. I kept the tire and the dog lost his life. At Ellsworth I had a good meal then sent for a doctor to get bandaged up, and went to bed.

On the outskirts of Casey, Illinois, Baker made a significant effort to avoid the pursuing storm. "I knew that I would never get throught the mud holes the storm would bring even with a team of horses if I am caught in the heavy rain". He got wet, but his quest continued.