Alex Roy

Last updated
Alex Roy
Alex Roy at the start of the 2006 Gumball 3000.jpg
Alex Roy at the start of the 2006 Gumball 3000
Born (1971-11-23) November 23, 1971 (age 52)
Los Angeles, California
NationalityAmerican
Employer(s)Argo AI, The Drive, NBC Sports, Noho Sound, Autonocast
Known for Rally racing, transcontinental driving record, Cannonball Run, autonomous vehicles, The Moth
Height6'

Alexander Roy (born November 23, 1971) is an American writer, podcaster, TV host and rally race driver who has set various endurance driving records, including the US "Cannonball Run" transcontinental driving record, which he and Dave Maher broke in 2007 in 31 hours and 4 minutes, featured in the 2019 documentary APEX: The Secret Race Across America. [1]

Contents

On April 1, 2015, Roy announced that he had completed the transcontinental driving record across the United States in 26 hours, 28 minutes. He subsequently revealed it to be an April Fools prank intended to highlight the lack of fact checking in online media. [2]

Driving career

Roy distinguished himself on the Gumball 3000 and Bullrun rallies with a modified BMW M5, and later a Bentley Continental GT comically decorated as Canadian, German, Spanish, Swedish, Italian and Bahamanian police cars (complete with lights, sirens, and an inflatable sex doll) for Team Polizei 144. [3] He won the Gumball's 2003 Spirit trophy for his car, eccentric costumes, and mock French or German interview replies. [3] In 2004, he and his co-driver wore costumes based on the Disney science fiction film Tron , winning the Style trophy. [3]

Roy meticulously prepares for rallies with the goal of avoiding police stops, [3] using maps, GPS navigation, and spreadsheets. During the 2004 rally, he impersonated a police officer, with vehicle mounted flashing lamps used to perform illegal traffic stops against his competitors in the rally.

Transcontinental "Cannonball" record

A prior record for crossing the U.S. from New York City to Los Angeles of 32 hours, 7 minutes was set in 1983 by David Diem and Doug Turner during the US Express, an unofficial successor to the Cannonball Run. The record was unofficial and never documented or confirmed. [4] When documentary filmmaker Cory Welles called it to Roy's attention, he decided he should be the one to break it.

Roy and co-driver Jonathan Goodrich, his longtime friend, completed a practice run in December 2005, finishing with a time of 34 hours and 46 minutes. A subsequent attempt in April 2006 added a spotter plane, but the failure of his M5's fuel pump ended the run in Oklahoma. On October 7 of 2006 Roy and replacement co-driver David Maher, a New York investment banker (who was also his 2003 Gumball co-driver), embarked on another run. On this, the successful 31:04 run Roy claims 2,794 mapped miles and 2800 road miles - which he covered at an average speed of 90.1 mph. [1] The run took place over Columbus Day weekend so as to meet minimal traffic, in part for safety; they also avoided any type of reckless driving such as tailgating, although they reached top speeds of 160 mph. [5] Roy's route, which hit only four toll booths, three or four red lights, and only one close call with the highway patrol in Oklahoma, ended at the Santa Monica Pier. [5]

Alex Roy's Team Polizei 144 BMW M5 Alex Roys Team Polizei 144 BMW M5 with 2007 Gumball 3000 decals-terabass.jpg
Alex Roy's Team Polizei 144 BMW M5

The record was witnessed in part by Davey Johnson and Mike Spinelli, contributor and managing editor of the automobile blog Jalopnik. [1] The time was recorded by a time clock which was punched as they left New York and flown to California before they arrived. [5]

Another rally driver team, comprising Gumball veterans Richard Rawlings and Dennis Collins, claim they beat the record in May 2007 at 31:59 on a 2,811 mile route; they also claim that Roy did not "stick to the route" of the original Cannonball Run. Alex Roy, on the other hand, claims that almost every year's route was different, and that the only rule was total time point-to-point. [6] The 31:04 record was set with sufficient margin to break the record even with the same route as the longest ever cross-country race. [6] The originator of the Cannonball Run, Brock Yates, does not acknowledge any records or sanction races due to his concern that "somebody was going to get killed". [1] Roy expresses similar concern with regard to anyone attempting to break his claimed record. [5]

In October 2007, Roy published a book on his racing career, The Driver: My Dangerous Pursuit of Speed and Truth in the Outlaw Racing World (HarperCollins, ISBN   978-0-06-122793-6). Information on the record-setting run was withheld until publication. [1]

Roy's transcontinental record was later broken in October, 2013, by Atlanta-native Ed Bolian in 28 hours, 50 minutes and 26 seconds. [7] [8] [9]

Electric Vehicle & Semi-Autonomous Driving Records

Alex Roy at the start of the 2007 Gumball 3000 Alex Roy at the start of the 2007 Gumball 3000.jpg
Alex Roy at the start of the 2007 Gumball 3000

In 2015, Roy set another Transcontinental Record, or Cannonball Record, in the electric car class, with a time of 57 hours 48 minutes, from L.A. to N.Y.C., besting the previous time of 58:55, which were preceded by records of 67:21 and 76:05. Roy was with Carl J Reese and Deena Mastracci, who had set the prior 58:55 time. They used a Tesla Model S and its autopilot feature to set the 57:48 time. [10]

From August 24–27 of 2016, Roy and teammates Warren Ahner & Streetwars founder Franz Aliquo broke the Electric & semi-Autonomous Cannonball Run records again, driving a Tesla Model S 90D 2,877 miles from the Portofino Inn to the Red Ball garage in 55 hours, breaking the prior record by 2 hours & 48 minutes. Tesla Autopilot was engaged 97.7% of the journey. [11] GPS data and video evidence was captured using both a US Fleet Tracking device, and Comma.ai's Chffr video logging software. [12]

With an early-production Tesla Model 3, which are delivered to California-based customers only, Roy and co-driver Dan Zorrilla broke the Electric Cannonball Run record again December 28–31 of 2017, driving 2,860 miles eastbound from the Portofino Inn to the Red Ball garage in 50 hours and 16 minutes. [13] [14] GPS data was captured using the GPS Tracks application, and video evidence was shared on YouTube. [15] In July 2019, Roy's record was beaten by a family team of Robin Jedi Thomsen, and her parents Lars Thomsen and Betty Legler with a time of 48 hours 10 minutes driving westbound for 2,835 miles (4,562 km) in a Long-Range Rear-Wheel-Drive Tesla Model 3 between 12–14 July 2019. [16]

Record Manhattan Lap

On September 10, 2001, Roy set the record for fastest driven lap around Manhattan. With a time of approximately 27 minutes, he recalls in his book, mentioned above, that he hit top speeds of 144 mph while committing 151 moving violations — enough to have his New York driver's license suspended 78 times over. [4]

He used a route that would allow him to skip the most northerly and heavily policed sections of the city. Starting at the World Trade Center, which was coincidentally destroyed the next day in a terrorist attack, Roy drove through the Battery Park Underpass, up the Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive, across the George Washington Bridge Interchange, down the Henry Hudson Parkway which turns into the West Side Highway finally ending back at the World Trade Center. Though he discusses the lap thoroughly in his book, the video footage has never been released. [4]

In October 2010, a video was uploaded onto YouTube showing Roy's record being broken. The participants in the video are shown taking the same route (though the Battery Park Underpass is saved for the end) and achieving a time of 26 minutes and 3 seconds.

Alex Roy at the 2007 Gumball 3000 rally launch party Alex Roy at the 2007 Gumball 3000 rally launch party.jpg
Alex Roy at the 2007 Gumball 3000 rally launch party

In August 2013, Adam "Afroduck" Tang, a Canadian national, set a new unofficial record time of 24 minutes 7 seconds around Manhattan in a manual 2006 BMW Z4 3.0si, filmed it, and put it on YouTube with the title "Fastest Lap of Manhattan 2013". He began the loop out at 116th St and stopped at all but one of the six red lights along the way. [17]

Business career

Roy worked with the YouTube show Fast Lane Daily in a segment known as "Road Testament". The show covered driver safety, track day guides, road rallying, and more. [18]

Roy is currently Editor-at-Large of automotive site The Drive, founder and co-host of the Autonocast (a podcast focused on the future of transportation), and co-host of /DRIVE on NBC Sports, a TV show about cars with Chris Harris and Mike Spinelli, now in its sixth season.

In March 2018, Roy published the Human Driving Manifesto, launching the Human Driving Association, which is focused on protecting private car ownership and control over automated vehicles.

In January 2019, Roy joined Autonomous Vehicle developer Argo.ai as Director of Special Operations.

Personal life

Roy is a regular at youth charity balls, formerly chaired the board of New York City's live storytelling series The Moth, currently serves on the board of classical music platform Groupmuse, and in 2004 won a British reality television series, The Ultimate Playboy. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rallying</span> Form of motorsport

Rallying is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests, navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed time or average speed. Rallies may be short in the form of trials at a single venue, or several thousand miles long in an extreme endurance rally.

<i>The Cannonball Run</i> 1981 film by Hal Needham

The Cannonball Run is a 1981 American action-comedy film directed by Hal Needham, produced by Hong Kong's Golden Harvest films, and distributed by 20th Century-Fox. Filmed in Panavision, it features an all-star ensemble cast, including Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, Jackie Chan, and Dean Martin. The film is based on the 1979 running of the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, an actual cross-country outlaw road race beginning in Connecticut and ending in California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gumball 3000</span> British international motor rally

Gumball 3000 is a brand known for the annual Gumball 3000 Rally, an international celebrity motor rally that takes place on public roads. The brand was founded in 1999 by British entrepreneur Maximillion Cooper, with his vision to combine cars, music, fashion and popular culture.

<i>Car and Driver</i> American automotive magazine

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Brock Yates was a prominent American journalist, TV commentator, TV reporter, screenwriter, and author. He was the longtime executive editor at Car and Driver magazine — and contributed to The Washington Post, Playboy, The American Spectator, Boating, Vintage Motorsports as well as other publications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Röhrl</span> German rally driver (born 1947)

Walter Röhrl is a German rally and auto racing driver, with victories for Fiat, Opel, Lancia and Audi as well as Porsche, Ford and BMW. Röhrl has scored 14 victories over his career, with his notable achievements including winning the World Rally Championship twice: in 1980 in a Fiat Abarth and in 1982 while driving for Opel. He has also competed in other forms of motorsport, such as endurance racing, winning in the GTP +3.0 class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1981 with the Porsche System team. Röhrl also set the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb record in 1987 driving an Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2. He is often regarded as one of the greatest rally drivers of all time.

<i>Cannonball</i> (film) 1976 film by Paul Bartel

Cannonball is a 1976 American comedy film directed by Paul Bartel and starring David Carradine. The film is one of two released in 1976 that were based on a real illegal cross-continent road race that took place for a number of years in the United States. The same topic later became the basis for the films The Cannonball Run, Cannonball Run II and Speed Zone. The film was written and directed by Paul Bartel, who also directed Death Race 2000.

<i>The Gumball Rally</i> 1976 American comedy film by Charles Bail

The Gumball Rally is a 1976 American action comedy film, directed and co-written by Charles Bail, a former stunt coordinator also known as Chuck Bail, about an illicit coast-to-coast road race. It was inspired by the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash run by Brock Yates, which inspired several other films, including Cannonball (1976), Cannonball Run (1981), and Speed Zone (1989), as well as an actual event, the American Gumball Rally and Gumball 3000 international race.

The Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, widely known as the Cannonball Baker or Cannonball Run, was an unofficial, unsanctioned automobile race run five times in the 1970s from New York City and Darien, Connecticut, on the East Coast of the United States to the Portofino Inn in the Los Angeles suburb of Redondo Beach, California. The Cannonball Run races have additionally inspired numerous contemporary efforts by independent teams to set the record time for the route, known as the Cannonball Run Challenge. The races were named after Erwin Baker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erwin Baker</span> American motorcycle racer (1882–1960)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Land's End to John o' Groats</span> Traversal of the length of Great Britain

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The 2904, Transcontinental Motorized Vehicular Tournament of Efficiency and Endurance, known more commonly as The 2904 is an unofficial, endurance race from New York City to California. Conceived by John Ficarra, as a combination of the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash and the 24 Hours of LeMons.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cannonball Run challenge</span> Unsanctioned vehicle speed record

A Cannonball Run is an unsanctioned speed record for driving across the United States, typically accepted to run from New York City's Red Ball Garage to the Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach near Los Angeles, covering a distance of about 2,906 miles (4,677 km). As of October 2021, the overall record is 25 hours 39 minutes, with an average speed of 113 miles per hour (182 km/h), driven by Arne Toman and Doug Tabbutt.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 David Shaftel (2007-10-17). "Tale of Outlaw Racing, With the U.S. as a Course". The New York Times . Retrieved 2007-10-21.
  2. ↑ "If I Drove It: 26:28 And The End Of Automotive Journalism". TTAC. April 2, 2015. Retrieved 2015-04-02.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 George Gurley (June 2005). "Road Trip! Fueled by testosterone, alcohol, and God knows what else, the 200-odd drivers in the sixth annual Gumball 3000 raced their Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Porsches, and other assorted vehicles out of Paris on May 5, 2004, headed for Cannes viahee Madrid, Marbella, and Casablanca". Vanity Fair . Retrieved 2007-10-21.
  4. 1 2 3 Charles Graeber (October 2007). "The Pedal-to-the-Metal, Totally Illegal, Cross-Country Sprint for Glory". Wired Magazine . Retrieved 2007-10-21.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Rick Leventhal (October 19, 2007). "Transcontinental Driving Record Claimed to be Broken". Fox News.com. Retrieved 2007-10-21.
  6. 1 2 "One on one with Alex Roy". Attack of the show. 2007-10-18.
  7. ↑ Eliott C. McLaughlin (November 1, 2013). "Atlanta man shatters coast-to-coast 'Cannonball Run' speed record". CNN.com. Retrieved 2013-11-01.
  8. ↑ Joshua Rhett Miller (October 31, 2013). "Atlanta man recounts NY-to-LA drive in record 28 hours, 50 minutes". Fox News.com. Retrieved 2013-11-01.
  9. ↑ Russell Goldman (October 31, 2013). "New Record: Driving Across the US in Less Than 29 Hours". ABC News.com. Retrieved 2013-11-01.
  10. ↑ Alex Roy (30 October 2015). "The Future Is Back: Why The New Cross-Country Tesla Record Matters". Jalopnik.
  11. ↑ Alex Roy (21 September 2016). "Alex Roy Shatters Electric and Autonomous Cannonball Run Records in a Tesla". The Drive.
  12. ↑ Jonathan M. Gitlin (22 September 2016). "Cannonballing coast-to-coast in a Tesla 90D: Alex Roy sets a new record". Ars Technica.
  13. ↑ "Tesla Model 3 driven from LA to New York in 50 hours". 2 January 2018.
  14. ↑ Roy, Alex (5 January 2018). "Tesla Model 3: The First Serious Review". The Drive. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  15. ↑ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine : Alex Roy & Dan Zorrilla Set New Electric Cannonball Run Record in Tesla Model 3. YouTube .
  16. ↑ Alvarez, Simon (2019-07-31). "Tesla Model 3 sets new EV Cannonball Run record at 48 hrs 10 mins". Teslarati.
  17. ↑ Santora, Marc (September 6, 2013). "Arrest Made in Wild Drive Around Manhattan". The New York Times.
  18. ↑ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine : The Failures of Driver Education: Road Testament. YouTube .
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