AMS Races across the country in an EVO X. Updates Thead!
Sep 29, 2008, 08:29 AM
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AMS Races across the country in an EVO X. Updates Thead!
Well today is the day the journey officially begins. Martin, Tim and Frank set off in the AMS EVO X along with Sticker dude in their Scion TC to Baton Rouge, LA. Here are some pics of this afternoons events and the beginning of their long but very worthwhile journey across the country!
Last Minute Tie Downs
Maverick barking orders from the flight deck
The Sticker Dude Scion TC ready to roll out with us
Just about ready to launch
Tim and Frank Hooking up our small trailer for the trip
"You're Dangerous!"
Frank, Modeling as usual
"Systems Check, You are a go"
Justin wishing Martin and the guys a safe trip
Arne with our trio as they are about to strap in for the first 14 hour leg
Frank is such a sap!
The two cars off to Baton Rouge
Away they go
Best of luck and Safe Journey Gentleman. God Speed!
From here on out Martin, Tim and Frank will be uploading to the blog from the road. Be sure to follow their every move as they travel across the country racing the AMS EVO X all while spreading the word about missing children.
Click Here For the Fireball Run Blog
Wish them Luck!!! There are lots of missing kids out there that need it!
Last Minute Tie Downs
Maverick barking orders from the flight deck
The Sticker Dude Scion TC ready to roll out with us
Just about ready to launch
Tim and Frank Hooking up our small trailer for the trip
"You're Dangerous!"
Frank, Modeling as usual
"Systems Check, You are a go"
Justin wishing Martin and the guys a safe trip
Arne with our trio as they are about to strap in for the first 14 hour leg
Frank is such a sap!
The two cars off to Baton Rouge
Away they go
Best of luck and Safe Journey Gentleman. God Speed!
From here on out Martin, Tim and Frank will be uploading to the blog from the road. Be sure to follow their every move as they travel across the country racing the AMS EVO X all while spreading the word about missing children.
Click Here For the Fireball Run Blog
Wish them Luck!!! There are lots of missing kids out there that need it!
Sep 29, 2008, 08:52 AM
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Our first leg of the journey takes us 950 miles from Chicago to Baton Rouge Louisiana. The event officially starts Friday morning so we're making sure we get there in plenty of time. Tim is driving the Scion TC from Sticker Dude Graphics and Frank and I are taking turns piloting our AMS EVO X. And the Italian in the title, well Frank is Italian and I'm doing my Italian lessons on the computer. Nostra Viaggo = "Our trip"
The EVO X is so much nicer on the road than the EVO VIII-IX. Never mind the fact that it has cruise control but the general feel of the interior and the road manners are superb. Our EVO X has the MMCS navigation/radio and we are enjoying every minute of it! The NAVI is one of the best I've used and packaged with the satellite radio with media hard drive, it's a 'must' option. Frank and I have been jammin' to dance/electronica on the OEM Rockford Fosgate radio.
Our fresh set of BFGoodrich KDW's. Hot! We have a set of BFG R1's for track use, I'll snap some shots of those later.
Things we do to stay awake at 1am.
Open road.
The EVO X is so much nicer on the road than the EVO VIII-IX. Never mind the fact that it has cruise control but the general feel of the interior and the road manners are superb. Our EVO X has the MMCS navigation/radio and we are enjoying every minute of it! The NAVI is one of the best I've used and packaged with the satellite radio with media hard drive, it's a 'must' option. Frank and I have been jammin' to dance/electronica on the OEM Rockford Fosgate radio.
Our fresh set of BFGoodrich KDW's. Hot! We have a set of BFG R1's for track use, I'll snap some shots of those later.
Things we do to stay awake at 1am.
Open road.
Last edited by Mark@AMS; Sep 29, 2008 at 09:39 AM.
Sep 29, 2008, 09:51 AM
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The first official day of Fireball Run consists of a high speed track event at the Louisiana State Police training center. We get up early, pack our stuff, and head towards the track. We find the huge State Police training center and pass shooting ranges, training areas, and finally find the track. On the grounds we find a nice pond with an ominous sign warning us of gators!
The actual track is much faster than I anticipated. It's a 2 mile track that's not designed as a race track but police training grounds, it's high speed, no curbing and absolutely no run off! There are a series of esses that have street signs right where you would go off and mess up your car. Then there is section that comes off a fast left hander and you need to get on the brakes hard as the road narrows down to one lane! The car gets a little loose at this point and squirms from one edge of the road to the other.
We get a few practice laps and then we get put into our groups. We get split into groups of 5 and get put on track in Time Attack fashion. They take the fastest of my 3 laps. 2 laps into my run they red flag the race and stop us on track. I just came off a high speed straight and braked hard from 110mph. They keep us there for 5 minutes as they fix a timing error. Well sitting there with no airflow the brakes heat soaked and boiled the fluid. When they restarted I took my first lap super easy to give myself plenty of room so I don't catch the back of the field. Problem is I didn't use my brakes until the end of the fast straight away. Oh oh !! NO BRAKES!! I miss the first corner and go past some cones. I realize what happened to the brakes and get back on the track. Problem is I'm stuck behind two cars and I only have 2 hot laps to go! I go really slow on my second lap to make some room in front of me to go hard on my third lap. I charge hard on my third lap and it's a good one. We get the results later and find out we win first place by over 5 seconds! with most of the competition trailing over 10 seconds behind me. The funny thing is I didn't even run the BFG R1's, just the KDW street tires. We're saving the R1's for the Auto-X's and Grattan Raceway in Michigan.
With the first event out of the way we look forward to our challenges tomorrow. The track events account for a small part of the total points and it's really going to be our puzzle solving skills and common sense that bring us the points. Tomorrow morning we all leave Baton Rouge in style, as we form a car caravan and get a police escort out of downtown. I'll post a pic tomorrow of our assigned missing child. Her name is RJ Meyers, she's 7 years old and was last seen in NY. It's really sad to see how many kids go missing each year and hopefully we can make a difference. We'll be pro-active during our missions, handing out flyer's, talking to people, and putting up pictures of RJ. Well that's it for tonight, sorry for the long post and we'll see you tomorrow!
Watch out for the 'Gators boys!
Our Mitsubishi EVO X beast in the hotel parking lot
Getting ready to kick some butt with our BFG equipped AMS EVO X!
In the process of waxin' the competitionllll
The actual track is much faster than I anticipated. It's a 2 mile track that's not designed as a race track but police training grounds, it's high speed, no curbing and absolutely no run off! There are a series of esses that have street signs right where you would go off and mess up your car. Then there is section that comes off a fast left hander and you need to get on the brakes hard as the road narrows down to one lane! The car gets a little loose at this point and squirms from one edge of the road to the other.
We get a few practice laps and then we get put into our groups. We get split into groups of 5 and get put on track in Time Attack fashion. They take the fastest of my 3 laps. 2 laps into my run they red flag the race and stop us on track. I just came off a high speed straight and braked hard from 110mph. They keep us there for 5 minutes as they fix a timing error. Well sitting there with no airflow the brakes heat soaked and boiled the fluid. When they restarted I took my first lap super easy to give myself plenty of room so I don't catch the back of the field. Problem is I didn't use my brakes until the end of the fast straight away. Oh oh !! NO BRAKES!! I miss the first corner and go past some cones. I realize what happened to the brakes and get back on the track. Problem is I'm stuck behind two cars and I only have 2 hot laps to go! I go really slow on my second lap to make some room in front of me to go hard on my third lap. I charge hard on my third lap and it's a good one. We get the results later and find out we win first place by over 5 seconds! with most of the competition trailing over 10 seconds behind me. The funny thing is I didn't even run the BFG R1's, just the KDW street tires. We're saving the R1's for the Auto-X's and Grattan Raceway in Michigan.
With the first event out of the way we look forward to our challenges tomorrow. The track events account for a small part of the total points and it's really going to be our puzzle solving skills and common sense that bring us the points. Tomorrow morning we all leave Baton Rouge in style, as we form a car caravan and get a police escort out of downtown. I'll post a pic tomorrow of our assigned missing child. Her name is RJ Meyers, she's 7 years old and was last seen in NY. It's really sad to see how many kids go missing each year and hopefully we can make a difference. We'll be pro-active during our missions, handing out flyer's, talking to people, and putting up pictures of RJ. Well that's it for tonight, sorry for the long post and we'll see you tomorrow!
Watch out for the 'Gators boys!
Our Mitsubishi EVO X beast in the hotel parking lot
Getting ready to kick some butt with our BFG equipped AMS EVO X!
In the process of waxin' the competitionllll
Last edited by Mark@AMS; Sep 29, 2008 at 09:54 AM.
Sep 29, 2008, 10:13 AM
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Today we officially start the adventure portion of the Fireball Run. We start early in the morning lined up outside the Baton Rouge civic center. Over 50 cars sit at the line with a Police escort waiting to lead us out of town. We checked in and received our mission envelopes. At this point we all sit in our car ready to go with our still sealed envelopes held out our windows. At the start signal, a flare gun, we all are let go and open our envelopes. Our daily missions consists of many bonus points which involve solving clues to reach destinations and then solving the actual missions to reach a final destination. To say it's stressful is an understatement. For about 6 hours straight it's total mayhem as I'm on the phone, searching on-line, punching in directions on the GPS, using the CB radio, yelling at each other, ect. Our first passage control takes us to an air force base where we get the rest of our clues.
We do a couple of bonus destinations and wind up in Shreveport, LA. Here it got interesting. Our first clue takes us to a Children's Hospital where we donate a toy. We wish we could spend more time here meeting some of the kids and brightening up their day. Our next clue takes us to the very first place Elvis played, the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium. Here we get a treat and get to meet Elvis's guitarist, James Burton. James played with the likes of Johnny Cash, John Denver, and Jerry Lee Lewis amongst others. Our final clue takes us to a mall in Shreveport where we get a real surprise! We pull up to the outdoor mall and it's very busy with crowds and people walking around. Here we are wearing our flight suits and running around like mad men looking where to go. We find our destination and we need to do two challenges. The first is bowling and the next is a comedy club
We get one chance to throw the bowling ball so I give it a shot and choked. I throw the ball and knock down a measly 3 pins, horrible. We go next door and now we have to go on stage at the comedy club and make the judges laugh. We're out of breath, stressed out and we look like two army guys escorting an inmate (Frank in his orange jump suit). We wing up dancing like idiots to techno and then Frank and I take turns slapping each other on the ***! That was actually pretty funny. I hit Frank so hard my hand went numb for 15 minutes. I took a running start and the slap was so hard it echoed throughout the comedy club. Everyone is laughing but I'm pretty sure Frank was crying. After that we need to find the finish line. We only see one other team and we both break into a sprint towards the center of the outdoor mall. In full stride we fly past people and break into the center, just seconds behind the other team. Turns out one team arrived before either of us so we wind up 3rd for the day!
What a day! We're exhausted, sore, and sun burnt. We hear it gets harder from this point on and it already feels like we've been doing this for days. It's time for bed and to get some rest
Frank lining us up on the runway!
Team 'Top Gun' ready to go!
In line for the start. Who's idea was the trailer anyways?
Our first Passage Control Stop
Team AMS with Mr. James Burton, Elvis's Guitarist.
Here is R.J. Meyers, the missing child assigned to our team. We're spreading flyers and the word. It's amazing how many people want to help us. We've met a teacher that took a bunch of flyers to spread them through her school districts and others.
We do a couple of bonus destinations and wind up in Shreveport, LA. Here it got interesting. Our first clue takes us to a Children's Hospital where we donate a toy. We wish we could spend more time here meeting some of the kids and brightening up their day. Our next clue takes us to the very first place Elvis played, the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium. Here we get a treat and get to meet Elvis's guitarist, James Burton. James played with the likes of Johnny Cash, John Denver, and Jerry Lee Lewis amongst others. Our final clue takes us to a mall in Shreveport where we get a real surprise! We pull up to the outdoor mall and it's very busy with crowds and people walking around. Here we are wearing our flight suits and running around like mad men looking where to go. We find our destination and we need to do two challenges. The first is bowling and the next is a comedy club
We get one chance to throw the bowling ball so I give it a shot and choked. I throw the ball and knock down a measly 3 pins, horrible. We go next door and now we have to go on stage at the comedy club and make the judges laugh. We're out of breath, stressed out and we look like two army guys escorting an inmate (Frank in his orange jump suit). We wing up dancing like idiots to techno and then Frank and I take turns slapping each other on the ***! That was actually pretty funny. I hit Frank so hard my hand went numb for 15 minutes. I took a running start and the slap was so hard it echoed throughout the comedy club. Everyone is laughing but I'm pretty sure Frank was crying. After that we need to find the finish line. We only see one other team and we both break into a sprint towards the center of the outdoor mall. In full stride we fly past people and break into the center, just seconds behind the other team. Turns out one team arrived before either of us so we wind up 3rd for the day!
What a day! We're exhausted, sore, and sun burnt. We hear it gets harder from this point on and it already feels like we've been doing this for days. It's time for bed and to get some rest
Frank lining us up on the runway!
Team 'Top Gun' ready to go!
In line for the start. Who's idea was the trailer anyways?
Our first Passage Control Stop
Team AMS with Mr. James Burton, Elvis's Guitarist.
Here is R.J. Meyers, the missing child assigned to our team. We're spreading flyers and the word. It's amazing how many people want to help us. We've met a teacher that took a bunch of flyers to spread them through her school districts and others.
Last edited by Mark@AMS; Sep 29, 2008 at 10:16 AM.
Oct 1, 2008, 12:14 PM
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Shreveport Louisiana to Jackson Mississippi
On Day 3 we get up early and head to our cars. The police shut down the bridge connecting Shreveport and Bossier and us Fireballers get it to ourselves. It's our official starting line and it's a pretty awesome sight to behold.
Our first few missions take us to the Bonnie & Clyde museum and the actual site they got ambushed and killed. We head to our passage control for lunch. Here we get a little taste of the south with some smoked BBQ brisket, yum! After lunch our clues take us to Vicksburg Mississippi. Here we're to find a certain monument in the Vicksburg national military Park. The park consists of over 1300 monuments and over 16 miles of road commemorating the battle for Vicksburg during the US Civil War. I wish we could spend more time here as there are so many things to see. Our next set of clues takes us to Jackson Mississippi. Here we solve the last of our clues and we're the 9th team to arrive at the checkpoint. Not great be we had some hiccups along the way and glad to be top 10.
The bridge is ours!
At the starting line
Hanging up our flyers of our missing child.
A monument at the Vicksburg National Military Park
One of our missions, yes it's as weird as it looks.
On Day 3 we get up early and head to our cars. The police shut down the bridge connecting Shreveport and Bossier and us Fireballers get it to ourselves. It's our official starting line and it's a pretty awesome sight to behold.
Our first few missions take us to the Bonnie & Clyde museum and the actual site they got ambushed and killed. We head to our passage control for lunch. Here we get a little taste of the south with some smoked BBQ brisket, yum! After lunch our clues take us to Vicksburg Mississippi. Here we're to find a certain monument in the Vicksburg national military Park. The park consists of over 1300 monuments and over 16 miles of road commemorating the battle for Vicksburg during the US Civil War. I wish we could spend more time here as there are so many things to see. Our next set of clues takes us to Jackson Mississippi. Here we solve the last of our clues and we're the 9th team to arrive at the checkpoint. Not great be we had some hiccups along the way and glad to be top 10.
The bridge is ours!
At the starting line
Hanging up our flyers of our missing child.
A monument at the Vicksburg National Military Park
One of our missions, yes it's as weird as it looks.
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Oct 2, 2008, 08:34 AM
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Jackson Mississippi to Tuscaloosa Alabama.
It's our fourth day and we've done so much it's hard to put everything together. This event is action packed and keeps you on your toes. We get sent off in the morning by the Mayor of Jackson and we start to solve our clues. Our first clue takes us to Hattiesburg Mississippi, where Jimmy Buffet went to college. At the university of Southern Mississippi we need to find a guy sitting on some steps playing guitar. Eventually we find him and we become official parrot heads! After that we travel to an old Coca-Cola bottling factory that has been converted in a awesome restaurant and bar. Here is our passage control and we meet up with all the Fireballers. A lot of local people show up to greet us and it's a great place to pass out flyers of the missing children and meet some friendly people.
So far I have to say the people in the south are very friendly and nice, something we're not so used to in Chicago. Here they stop to say hello and go out of their way to help you out or just to ask how you're doing. And the food! The Bottling Company restaurant has an amazing aura about it. Very old and rustic with exposed brick and a vintage feel to it. A nice stage where they have a blues guitarist and his band putting out some good old blues. I ate the best burger I've tasted in a while, sipped on some Coke from a glass bottle, and enjoyed some true classic blues, doesn't get much better than this.
After Hattiesburg we hit the road to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We solve a couple of more missions here and take pictures for proof. We solve our clues immediately and we're doing really well. Our final check in is at the BFGoodrich tire plant in Tuscaloosa. We roll in and to our surprise we're the third team there!
At the end of the day they have one more challenge for us, an autocross. To make it interesting they make us wear beer goggles! With Tuscaloosa police on hand, they make us wear these vision distorting goggles that simulate a 0.08 BAC. Frank has been itching to drive so I promised him the day before he could do the autocross. Needless to say he is not happy about driving a super tight course with beer goggles on. His ego gets crushed as he plows down cones and three point turns his way to an 11th place finish. Of course we relentlessly poke fun of Frank 'The Tank' for his stellar performance and as always, he takes it in stride. I have a feeling at the next autocross (a real one) he'll redeem himself. The night concludes with a speech from the Mayor and wonderful dinner and reception at a local bar/restaurant.
The morning starting line
Tim passing out flyers at one of our gas stops
Parrot Heads!
Inside The Bottling Company
Enjoying an incredible lunch!
It's our fourth day and we've done so much it's hard to put everything together. This event is action packed and keeps you on your toes. We get sent off in the morning by the Mayor of Jackson and we start to solve our clues. Our first clue takes us to Hattiesburg Mississippi, where Jimmy Buffet went to college. At the university of Southern Mississippi we need to find a guy sitting on some steps playing guitar. Eventually we find him and we become official parrot heads! After that we travel to an old Coca-Cola bottling factory that has been converted in a awesome restaurant and bar. Here is our passage control and we meet up with all the Fireballers. A lot of local people show up to greet us and it's a great place to pass out flyers of the missing children and meet some friendly people.
So far I have to say the people in the south are very friendly and nice, something we're not so used to in Chicago. Here they stop to say hello and go out of their way to help you out or just to ask how you're doing. And the food! The Bottling Company restaurant has an amazing aura about it. Very old and rustic with exposed brick and a vintage feel to it. A nice stage where they have a blues guitarist and his band putting out some good old blues. I ate the best burger I've tasted in a while, sipped on some Coke from a glass bottle, and enjoyed some true classic blues, doesn't get much better than this.
After Hattiesburg we hit the road to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We solve a couple of more missions here and take pictures for proof. We solve our clues immediately and we're doing really well. Our final check in is at the BFGoodrich tire plant in Tuscaloosa. We roll in and to our surprise we're the third team there!
At the end of the day they have one more challenge for us, an autocross. To make it interesting they make us wear beer goggles! With Tuscaloosa police on hand, they make us wear these vision distorting goggles that simulate a 0.08 BAC. Frank has been itching to drive so I promised him the day before he could do the autocross. Needless to say he is not happy about driving a super tight course with beer goggles on. His ego gets crushed as he plows down cones and three point turns his way to an 11th place finish. Of course we relentlessly poke fun of Frank 'The Tank' for his stellar performance and as always, he takes it in stride. I have a feeling at the next autocross (a real one) he'll redeem himself. The night concludes with a speech from the Mayor and wonderful dinner and reception at a local bar/restaurant.
The morning starting line
Tim passing out flyers at one of our gas stops
Parrot Heads!
Inside The Bottling Company
Enjoying an incredible lunch!
Very cool pics guys! Also, I tip my hat to whomever assembled the EVO X's trailer. I finally finished assembling the same one, and what a PITA that was 
