The Cannonball Run

Snap Judgment

Snap Judgment and PRX

Snap, Glynn, Storytelling, Wnyc, Society & Culture/personal Journals, Performing Arts, Washington, Society & Culture/documentary, Arts/performing Arts, Music, Arts

4.8 • 11.2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 March 2024

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Three fanboys and a dead-sexy wax Burt Reynolds are on a mission. They are Eastbound and Down on a road trip from Cali to Florida State and the troopers… are hot on their heels.

A huge thank you to Mike Carano, Matt Leuthe, and Steve Millunzi for sharing their experience! Mike originally told a version of this story in conversation with Christine Blackburn on the Storyworthy podcast. Check out their collection of amazing stories!

Produced by Bo Walsh, original score by Dirk Schwarzhoff, artwork by Teo Ducot

Season 15 - Episode 13

Transcript

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0:00.0	Snap Studios.
0:15.0	Doom scrolling. through the early pandemic lockdown.
0:18.0	You remember this?
0:19.0	I'm watching as you recall as lots of people start doing lots of ridiculous things. Crazy things
0:26.8	dangerous things and clicking through the rabbit hole I start to learn about a
0:30.6	group of amateur racers who are using this brief pandemic window when the
0:36.2	roads are almost empty to beat the coast-to-coast land speed record.
0:41.3	It's a race and unofficial, secretive, highly illegal road race
0:46.2	starting from the Redball garage in New York City to the Portofino Hotel and Arena in
0:50.7	Redondo Beach, California. And you only know if you know. And the race is on.
0:58.2	Every other day, the internet reports records shattered, obliterated, as folks see their opportunity for
1:05.0	racing immortality. A team does it in 28 hours. Then someone gets 27 hours, 27.5, 26, and finally, finally some guy, Solo, claims to make
1:20.3	the trip, driving a rented Mustang GT in 25 hours, 55 minutes from sea to shining sea.
1:28.0	Average speeds fire in excess of 110 miles an hour.
1:32.6	And then they reportedly drive the car to Aversoever,
1:38.0	tosses over the keys, yeah, I got the insurance, thanks. And hearing about this, watching it play on YouTube, Twitter, it brings
1:48.0	me out of the pandemic into a happier time. I'm thinking, wait a minute, wait a minute, why does it sound familiar? How
1:56.8	do I know this race? Ah, and it hits me. All of this, all of it is from an old film, the cannonball run,
2:07.0	starring Bert Reynolds, Ferra Foster, Jackie Chan, especially though, Bird Reynolds.
2:14.4	It all comes rushing back.
2:15.8	My brothers and I used to love this movie.
2:20.1	I wanted to live this movie on the road.
	...

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