Between the stock tank and the fuel cell,we had more than 600 mile range. This proved quite interesting during the race. Gilles Villenue's brother who was an indy driver named Jacque was,driving a Porsche 928...he must have had better factory connections than me.
Any way....we were friends and kidded each other as to the rabbit and the turtle fable with our two cars. During the race we ran close to each other a lot and not because of the superior speed of the diesel. He had no idea that I had the fuel cell in the trunk, but I knew he had just a stock tank in his car so a lot of our race conversations on our CB's went like this.....
Jacque........Coming from behind me, lights blazing and some serious overtaking speed. Charlie, how did you get ahead of me?
Charlie......Moping along with the little engine that had no spark plugs.......Jacque, we took the shortcut on Route 32 back there, it cut almost 50 miles off the total trip.
Jacque.....WHAT SHORTCUT????? No one told me about a shortcut, how did you get this information?
Charlie.......Oh sorry Jacque, Brock told all the American drivers. I forgot that you are Canadian. Don't let Brock know I told you.
Jacque....Sacre Bleu! I cannot believe this, how many other cars know about this shortcut?
Charlie.....What shortcut? Don't know what you are talking about...can't hear you clearly now, the CB is giving off static.
This repeated over and over again each time he had to stop for fuel and we didn't.
Here is a short blurb from the book Brock wrote about the race.........P 189
Brock and Hal Needham were racing in a van made up to look like an ambulance called the Trans Con Medivac. This was the same ambulance used in the movie with Burt Reynolds, Cannonball Run.
"The Trans Con Medivac seemed to be losing speed. A subtle slipping in the transmission seemed to limit us to 90 miles per hour. Bright lights flared in our mirrors. A turbo diesel Mercedes-Benz flew past. Offshore powerboat racer Charlie McCarthy. Then came a Porsche 928, running perhaps 140 miles per hour. It's driver was Jacque Villeneuve, brother of Grand Prix driving superstar Gilles Villeneuve. This pair sailed into the distance, leaving nothing but winking taillights in their rooster tails."
Oh yes, that just reminded me that we raced in heavy rain for about 5 hours of,the race.
In the end my little oil burner finished in 36 hours 19 minutes and Jacque took 37 hours 36 minutes Satullo finished 36 hours 49 minutes. Remember the whole country was under a 55 MPH speed limit....we averaged 80. Magoon and Aronow chose not to run.
The first car, a Jaguar XJS finished in 32 hours 51 minutes.
My time includes one hour spent in a nice friendly night court in Ohio. I still hold the record for a speeding fine there.....$900.00. Some records are more noteworthy than others. My wife wonders how I will explain that one to my grandsons when they get a little older!
Sad note.....Brock Yates is in a senior nursing home with Alzheimers. If you put in his name on Facebook, his family has started a fund that accepts donations to combat this horrible disease. Keep him in your prayers.
It remains one of the greatest memories of my racing career, I am so grateful I was invited to compete.
