Players Run

[EspritFactFile]

Our Lotus friend, Rob Rill, is running his black 2001 Esprit in the 2005 Players Run. He is sending me daily journal updates on his adventures and it sounds crazy. I thought you would enjoy reading them so I will post his messages here.

[EspritFactFile]

Intro

Karl,

I may have mentioned I did the Gumball 3000 in Europe last year and I am writing because I am doing what is called the Players Run this year , which I am leaving for today. You can find more info at http://www.playersrun.com.

I thought the other members might want to hear about the event from our perspective since we are doing it in the Esprit. We have put up a web site to chronicle the event at http://www.darkcydracing.com I have added you to the daily email list, and if you want to post the emails to the group that would be great. The Event starts in Seattle at the Fairmont hotel , and ends in Las Vegas at the Bellagio Hotel via California. Car is in Seattle now and should be ready to go. I have the itinerary of the hotels we stop at on the site and thought the members might want to see all the exotics as they run through the event. I a bringing the member directory, in the event I may need some help and someone might be willing to lend a hand in an emergency.

Best Regards,

Robb Rill

[EspritFactFile]

Day Before Start

Ok we made it in last night about 6. Car picked us up, and their were no problems with baggage. Tara was quite tired so plan was to drop her off at the hotel Fairmont and have car wait to Take me to roy cats house where he was celebrating his birthday with about about 30 exotic cars at his house. I had not heard any updates on if my car was even picked up from the shop to have the stereo, Nav, jammers, etc. installed and honestly was little worried something went wrong and they wanted to tell me in person. so I'm checking in at hotel and couple next to us Richard and Donna and they ask me if we were in the run and say they are running in a Gallardo. I say yea and that I'm heading to the party at Roy Cats house to pick up my car. They then ask what car and I say Lotus Esprit. She then says -wow what a stereo it has and I was so happy top hear that car actually was there safe and sound with a confirmed sighting on it I hug her! She says the Stereo shop was sowcasing it and the goodies including the jammer and as a result they are installing like 7 more.

So I hop in the car with the driver downstairs and we rush to Roy's house. Police has initially blocked off area for the party. Its quite a scene with exotics everywhere and quite a bit of young women. Roy himself has a beautiful garage that runs two deep, and showcases his 4 Lambos and celebrating his birthday. Great guy who paid for everything in advance to get job done without even meeting me! I meet some of the guys including the guys in charge of install and one of these girls is posing on the car. Its a funny scene and apparently one of the installers "friends". Anyways she is mtenioning how she loves Lotuses because of pretty women and all that, and Im mainly trying to see the equipment that was installed. Guys in Seattle at Car Toy's in Seatlle are very professional even though head sales guy Patrick was a little tispy and rambling a bit about how my wife threatened to shoot the installer if the subwoofer in passenger well took more then 6 inches and they got away with just 5. She didn't threaten them but rather said she would get in car if was beyond 6 which was the promise. Anyway we all got what we wanted. Cars and people are everywhere and they want to grab some dinner at mexican place just down the street. So Zoe the girl posing on car demands a ride, I oblige taking her to the Mexican place and we end up meeting with about 50 of Roys friends and other Players run guys.

I meet up with Bulent and Peter who arranged to ship my car and are running the news 911GT3 Rs. Car is fully race out with full frame roll cage, Recaro racing seats etc. and I have to say Peter who is German is one of the funniest guys I met. He talks like Arnold Scwartzenager (sp), but has long hair. He don't even try to be funny and makes me laugh. So he and Bulent introduce me to cool guy named Robert also running in his F40 who lives in Seattle. Cool young guy about

26 who graduated from MIT and sold some technology for quite a bit of money to Cisco and living the good life. we hit it off and he is going to show us his 12 car garage with double lifts for his stable of nice cars. turns out his wife who is a Orthepedic surgeon just got T boned by a drunk driver and is in the hospital having an operation. the drunk is a repeat offender and she has broken collar bone, broken leg, broken ribs and possible internal bleeding. So he jets off to the hospital to deal with the mess and I feel real bad for him because of his wife, and how his trip is obviously cancelled. Later today I find out she will be ok and is transfered to the house with 24 hours doctor watch and the drunk makes bail for 5k.

Today spent most of time getting car ready and meeting other on the run. Got the police scanner installed and all set up at Car Toys and the fixed a problem with the Ipod hookup. Markus the orginizer seems to have his plan together and all cars getting stickered up , and we got our race packets with goodies and what not. Roy and the gang of girls and what not supposedly never made it home and still doing whatever wherever. Tonight there is a party at a club called Element, and we all leave in morning tommorow from Fairmont at 9:15 to run to Oregon where it is believed we will have a track day somewhere. Also told we will be racing on Leguna Seca in Cali. sidenote -Cali new law allows cars to get impounded if caught about 100. we shall see who losses their car. also couple in a Lambo getting marries at the Bellagio after this event if the dont kill each other on the way.

Good Friend Geoff from Vancouver just arrived so gotta run to show him around and get ready for dinner. If all goes well should here more tommorow night.

Cheers,

Robb

[EspritFactFile]

Day 1

Ok keep in minnd its past 12 pm I just got here an hour ago so spelling and grammer will be horrible. I have limited time to write so please bear with me. We left Seattle about 9am and had decent crowd and brief police escort. Route card was wrong and instead of conituning on I-5 we went towards the airport instead. Figured it out and group of 20 of us running pretty hard in dense traffic. Best thing we purchased out of all the equipment was the uniden bct-8 scanner and not only did it save us multiple times as we heard the cops freaking out about what was going on, but allowed us to take the lead in the stage after our lead group got nicked by about 5 cops waiting even though by the time they saw us we were not speeding. Had our buddy Jerry in the Stradale Modena in cuffs and confiscated video tape of him basically chasing me the whole time up until then. We then ran by ourseleves for several hours wondering where everyone was and hearingf the police call ahead to alert we were comming.

Crossed the border fine and ended up running hard in the mountins. what I did not know was cop was wating for us at what was an indian reservation. We had no idea, and without radar caught up to me , yanked me over, and told me he could take me to jail becasue anything over 25mph over in a reservation was federal offence. Was nice guy, I got 250 fine, and no points since its federal. We leave then 10 minuites later pulls me agin -same cop I was doing 70 and thinking how could he and basically said no more warnings and stay at 55. We did and still retained top rankings.

Cannot express how important scanner was as we heard the aiplanes overhead indicating their game plan. Ended up running toward Crater lake and heard a buddy in an nsx we knew get pulled with mile marker and so we knew where he was. This is after running 100 miles behind a coip doing 55. He wavd at us and we at him and we continued running with the nsx to Crater lake. Then the entrance was closed so we needed to run around the long way which was an additional 50 miles and ran into a fuel problem. Middle of nowhere no cell service and no stations anywhere. I see a cop and I pull over to find out where I might grap some quick petrol and he tells me nothing around except a hidden place that is a camp ground site. If it was not for that cop we would be stuck in the middle of the forest by ourselves with no gas or communication. so the group of 15 cars pass us the pther way wondering where we were going and by time we got gas and made it up to the top of the mountain we were about 25th. If we had not had the gas problem would have been first. The two germans dressed up as cops were first in a mercedes SUVAmazing.

We then ran to Ashland where we are now after a very slow drive since cops were everywhere and now have notified everyoine in every state we are comming. Tommorow is about a 700 mile drive and we go through some very beautiful scenery but im keeping that to myself until its done. Lotus ran perfect with no problems.My buddy in the GT3rs got up to 178 then he tells me he his liscence is exired. Peter is the funniest guy I know and I cant help to laugh so hard because he dosnt even tery to be funny. He talks like Arnold Swatzennager and driver like shumacher. Some nice local kids gave us a ride to dinner since its freezing cold and was a 10 minute walk. Thanks guys. The mountain view was amazing and we actually drove through snow. Hard to beleive being from Florida. Marcus the event orgazier has done a top job and the staff is super professional.

We got to our hotel room with the bags already there which is a nice feeling after a 13 hour drvie and Tara had a crises in the morning since we ran out of room in the lotuis with items she thought would fit. Dont ask how we made it fit, but we did. Anyways there are actually about 20 other little funny stories about other I could write but time is short now so will have to wait for another entry. Got some good video and for the nice guy Rob we met in Seattle at the start please send those pics. Anybody else who saw us off today or that we met along the way please sned the pics and we will post them on the website when we get back . I know lots plan to meet up with us in Cali and we really look forward to it. Colin called me from the Gumball last year in the middle of the action and it was right after that call that things got chaotic. Maybe he was a bad omen

Cheers,

Robb

[EspritFactFile]

Day 2

Good evening. Today was a spectacular day.! Met a nice guy in the morning who was a local in Ashland who helped me find a gas station that was open at 7 Am to prepare for the start. . Sleepy little town didn't have much available. We started out with a police escort and because of yesterday nobody wanted to take lead. I think I menrtioned I was leading a pack that all got nicked yesterday and now have to go to court in Portalnd on criminal charges, and I was the only one to escape the group because I did not pull over. They all got a bum rap and were not speeding when they got caught but regardless are now in the machine of justice. So with them being gun shy I took the lead and with the scanner we ran a a steady but not psycho pace with about 13 cars. Mostly the Lambo Gallardo and the Modena keeping close tabs, with Peter and Bullent in the Gt3 always close behind.

We charged into California and were soon into spectacular moutains for at least 125 miles. Was amazing driving up the twisties and lots of excitment since passing the cars we quickly came up upon was difficult. One big event was a truck that was maybe late 70's ford f50, that was loaded with firewood. Car was clearly unsafe and he was never touching his breaks in front of me with the truck swinging back and forth climbing up the hill. He was going way to fast for that vehicle and when he saw us he reasonibly quickly allowed us to pass. 10 minutes later I find get a call on the walkies that somebody is down. Since I was lead car I pull over and realize only 3 or 4 immediately behind me. I thought one of us went over the cliff and soon discover it is the truck that went over. He should be dead but a tree caught the truck and he emerges from it relativly unscathed. Knowing the cops are going to blame us, we keep going and later 2 of our vettes get pulled and asked about the wreck. As expected they say one of us cut him off and not only is it not true, one of the last guys in group has it on tape. I saw picture of truck abnd it is no more. Supposdly made news but truth is he either didnt have brakes or didn't use them and went over driving too fast.

Later the radar detector working with the scanners work superb, and I hear over scaenner they mentioining our Lotus specifically, I assume because it was lead car in our group. Every time the cops saw us though we were doing 60 like clockwork and I know they were frustrated that obviously they could not bleive 12 exotics would be doing the speed limit every single time they saw us. We then took a scenic detour through the redwood forrest which was amazing, and I have a picture of the Lotus driving through a huge 1000 year old Redwood tree.

Got some lunch with about 10 of the guys and relaxed for an hour since we made good time. Tara then took over and drove the last 125 miles on in and I have to say I was impressed with her driving as the cemera crew recorded the action. Since we were lead car I told guys we were switching and that they could pass if bored but it ended up being her driving a levels nobody expted and Peter my crazy German friend in the GT3 said she forced them to even push harder. Kudus to the wife! Drove into San Fran and was jammed with Traffic. Was worried about the Lotus overheating but the fan kicked on and we were good. Lotus ran flassless and we seemed to get quite a reputation for having an agressive running car. The Hotel scene at the Fairmont we like a huge event with all thethe street in front of the hotel blocked off so we could all display the cars. Steve Saleen sent an S-7 over who will join us on the run. Also an enzo joined us today, so expect more things to come. We are going to go tour the Saleen factory later I am told which is exciting to me since we own one.

Had a great party at the penthouse of the fairmont and catering and service was top notch and met and made many new friends. Tara is going to drive a ferrari 360 for part of tommorws stage and I will run in the Lotus with another co driver. The only dissapointment was a pal Jeff with another Black esprit that has 650 HP was delevered to the hotel to run in the event with us and snapped a drive shaft 8 blocks away from the hotel on a test run. So he will contuine to run in his cab 996. Wanted to have us together running to show the Lotus domination for the event but not going to happen.

Anyways, we run to LA tommorow and should see some of the coast. Have quite a few friends expecting to meet us in LA and looking forward to it. As always plenty of stories to tell with not enough time to write at current moment. Fort anybody going to meet the event in LA we are going to arrive at the Mondrian and please send any pictures you take of us in the car. It seems every new stop has more and more people. Hope you end up being one of them.

[EspritFactFile]

Day 3

Today was the best yet by far. We started out with a police escort through the streets of San Francisco and people were amazed at all the cars. Steve Saleen sent an S7 to run with us and we went in a parade through some really hilly streets including that famous street that is brick and winds back and forth in between some houses. The roads are terrible and I spent an hour prior to- leaving trying to get the Lotus washed, and ended up doing it myself at the Garage since it was too early to find someone. We all charged out pretty hard and hit the typical trafic associated with Cali. On the way, I friend Colin from the European Gumball met up with us a a gas station to say hello and he and his father were kind enough to bring us some digital tapes for the camera mounted on the car, so meeting up with them was a necessity. We drove up the coast to Hurst Castle which had some amazing roads that were very tight. Alex and Danielle in the Lambo Gallardo, and Phil in the Modena ran hard with us, and things were great till we hit contruction work. Mid way up there was road work and traffic was backed up for an hour and Peter and Bullent thought I was behind them in traffic so they told me via the walkies, I should go up the wrong way to bypass traffic. Make a long story short, they said I was clear when I was not and I ended up pissing off quite a few vehicles going the wrong way. The good news I was now in front of the line that was being held back so when we we were realeased I just had to pass 15 cars and then me and Alex in the Gallrdo spent 65 miles all to ourselves up chasing cars on some of the windiest roads I have ever done along the Pacific coast. We got great video of it with the in car camera mount. We made it to Hurst castle in Second place which was pretty good. Hurst castle is a amazing place, but it would take two hours to see the tour so we had to skip it which was a dissappointment.

It was the tiime for Tara to drive the Ferrarii Modena Stadale owened by Jerry who got nicked by the cops in the group running with me in Seattle, and Tara was quite eager to test it. We ran in a pack of about 10 and with me in lead car with Jason as my codriver we came upon a trooper who must have been looking for us. so we tailed him for 20 miles videotapping and as soon as he pulled over to the side of the road to get behind us , we took off hard and he went poof and dissappeared. We lost all the cars following and came upon a truck that was going about 110 and wanted to race us. This reminded me of the incident yesterday with the other truck and all I could do was laugh at the fact this guy wanted nothing more than to run with us. We ended up at a gas station with him where he told us he could have gone much faster but wanted to be safe. I'm thinking he lost a screw or two since the road coniditions were rough and the Lotus kept bottoming out. The HRE rims are one inch biger then stock and even though I had the fender wells trimmed it still scraps under fast conditions with bumpy roadfs. We drove quite fast within our limits into La and ended up at the Mondrian hotel in 6th. It should be noted our guys Alex in the Lambo and Patrick in the Modena were one and two. OS our roup should get major props. Tara came in with Jerry about 20 minutes later about 20th. There was a guy called Birdman that is banned from the event and promoting the Ultimate Rally which is a true race done by the infamous Kimble and was not a welome guest since he was banned after last year, and was told after tryng to impress people with his 650 HP Porsche he broke down an hour away from Hurst Castle. I think Marcus the event orgainizer was not too dissappointed to hear this news.

At the hotel, we had an amazing dinner at the hotel which is considered one of the trendiest in LA. Steve Saleen stopped by and is being a track car for tommorow event where we will do a track day at California speedway where we will be led to by police escort some 60 miles from here. We had no trouble with the police and the scanner was quiet. All in all a great day and was happy to have a freind Jason fly in from Amerstdam to see us. We go downstairs to the cars to grab some items we needed and a girl thart was picked up by a guy in the NSX who basically left me when I almost ran out of gas was doing a photo shoot half nude on the Car. I really thought this was quite funny for reasons I cannot go into at this point. Needless to say, I think she made some new friends.

Im quite tired now and need to pack the gear for tommorow so thats all for tongiht.

[EspritFactFile]

Day 4

Today was an impressive day. We left the Mondrian with a huge police escort normally reserved only for the president and very high ranking officals. We started on Sunset and headed for the Interstate where we had a track day at the California speedway. They blocked off huge parts of I-5 and we ran as a pack of 60 at speeds upwards of 115 with the cops leading the way the whole 60 miles. It was hard to beleive the cops that had been previously harrassing us, were now not only helping us but enjoying themselves as well, speeding on their motorbikes. One cop was actually seen doing wheelies. About 15 of them in total did a great job blocking off traffic and making sure we got to the speedway without issues. Starting on Sunset would be quite difficult without them as traffic was packed, and people were amazed at all the cars. The cops than hung out as we tracked the cars. After the drivers meeting, we had a visit from Darth Vadar and Chewbacka, and Roy Cats made an apperrace basically in the buff except for womens panties in the name of lightening up the weight so his lambo would travel faster. After showing Tara the racing lines , she hit the track and got a little too aggressive. Spun the car out comming out of the chicane, and off roaded it sideways, but she is a trooper and was doing rapid laps just 10 minutes later. I got to Track a Gallardo for the first time thanks to alex and Danielle who ran hard with us in the mountains, and Patrick in the Ferrari who has been in our lead group, gave me some lessons since he is a race driver in the Ferrari Challenge series. I wasn't used to the E shifter but the Gallardo is quite nice with 550 Hp and a V-10 although not vert torquey but fun none the less with all wheel drive.

We then met Steve Saleen and I thanked him for the work on our car which allowed us to do so well in Gumball Europe last year. He brought a twin turbo S-7 and gave people a ride. The was also a Ford GT for us to check out which is very comfortable to sit in with the shifter angled toward the driver which I liked alot. We then did a bad thing and Ran a Porche driven by a Rolex cup driver against us in a Modena chasing and got kicked off for doing it. Peter did a great job with very smooth lines. I than got in a Jag for the final run to Sandiego as a passenger since Tara ran in the Lotus to the Solomar in the Hotel with a camera man for an interview on the event. I ran with Marcus's brother the event organizer, who is a very cool managing director for a interent company. This funny German is 6 '7 and looks like a basket ball player and we just laughed about all the craziness since this was his first event. I was told some guys had some trouble with the cops on the run to the hotel but once again the police scanner alerted the group, and Roy Cats was seen pulled over for supposedly going 150 which technically can allow them to impound the vehicle under new Californian law for anything over 100. Haven't seen him since.

Had a bizzare experience at a place called the strip club where you cook your own steaks. I don't eat meat so was not exactly my type of place. Later one of the Ferrar 355's had the top down in the garage and a bunch of guys took the soiled towels from the huge laundry bins and stuffed the whole car with them . Was not my idea but admit I participated in the joke. We then filmed the ending scene to what is going to be for the movie of Players Run being made with Tara and I on a rickshaw, with the guy biking us back to Florida on the assumption we killed the car. All in all a very fun day.

Tommorow, we make the final run to Vegas where a helicopter is waiting to take us for a tour of the city at 2:45. Hope to have one more good run and make it early as we did on previous stages. If all goes will be no big police issues. Huge finale party at the Bellagio and award ceremony. We hope to see some of you there.

Robb

[EspritFactFile]

Day 5

Ok the end has finally come. I'm going to be brief because I have to get ready for the black tie affair in one hour. Because of our experience I knew we needed to leave earlier than the other in order to minimize the issue with the police. I quietly let about 5 guys that had been running with me to selectively join us and leave at 8:30 which was about an 30 minutes earlier then most. We set out and almost immediately hit traffic at about 15 minutes into it due to a tractor trailer that ran over Traffic was back up for at least an hour so our strategy was thwarted. We had to drive on the hard shoulder for about couple miles in bumper to bumper traffic and we turned off to find an alternative route to Vegas. After about 15 minutes we determined it would take too long and ended up looping back which killed at least another 30 minutes. On the way we picked up about 5 other Players and end getting great film of a pack of about 10. Not everybody had gas so we stopped more than we needed and were clearly not going to make good time. since the pack caught up with us the police were on full alert and had airplanes and helicopters after us. A scanner worked petty well but they switched to a private frequency after they realized we could hear them since we thwarted early efforts to nab us. I am imagining their in total were about 20 -25 cops at several check points so we slowed down but they still wanted us too bad even though we were not really speeding. I got nicked for 83 in a 70 and illegal lane change which is a joke from a helicopter. The cop almost seemed embarrassed he had to do it and we were quickly off as he said we were the lowest ticket he had written and one was in jail us far. We then warned everybody was instructed they were lining up ahead of us and we simply couldn't make good time. Almost everybody got pulled and the party crasher Adrian from Ultimate rally the party crasher that broke down on the way to Hurst Castle got popped at an alleged 200 mph and went to jail. A buddy in a yellow Murci

[EspritFactFile]

After-Party and Summary

I am on the plane on the way back to Florida and thinking of all the crazy things that happened. Let

[EspritFactFile]

Folks,

Rob has put a ton of pics plus a video from his adventures at the Players Run. You can find them at:

http://www.darkcydracing.com

or the picture gallery directly at:

http://rill.smugmug.com/gallery/590514