This morning, we’d start off where we left off, the beautifully lavish Toronto Hilton. Good food, a great room and a great night’s sleep gave us the rejuvenation we needed.

Before I share our highway hi-jinx, let me say for the record that Toronto is a wonderfully scenic city populated with great people. I’ve long described living in Canada as being akin to living in an apartment above a really great party, but after a short time, it was clear that this part of Canada had its charms.

The roll out from the Toronto Hilton was uneventful. JP Clinging and I would do today’s trek in the Audi RS4 (with yours truly at the wheel), while Nick and Dan would do the trek in the hot rod Panoz. (Mario Andretti was only with us for day one).

After a morning fill up, we blazed onto the 401 south heading for Windsor, Ontario, just outside Detroit.

The drive down 401 revealed some of the most spectacular scenery in North America…mostly flat but green, not at all devoid of quaint farms New England style villages.  We didn’t get to see much of it, largely because the convoy we were in was booking along at a good rate. Canadian drivers are courteous, attentive and kind like no others in the world…they happily merged right after a quick flash of the high beams. I won’t say how fast we were going, but the convoys often touched speeds of 140mph.  Granted, there was scarcely a car on the road and the long straight aways (for sometimes 50 miles without even a hint of a bend) were conducive to a brisk pace, especially when considering the talent behind the wheels of the Bullrun cars.

The 228 mile trip took something like 3 hours and we rolled into Windsor Casino in rock star fashion. Hundreds of spectators gathered to hang out with us.

The Audi finished 7th, the Panoz came in about 30 minutes later. It seems Nick and Dan had decided that they would utilize a more moderate pace to see what the difference would be versus our break-neck pace.

The view of Detroit from the Canadian side of the river surely showed Detroit’s best side…it’s certainly not that nice in the heart of the city. The Windsor Casino treated us like royalty and the buffet had dozens of stations and mounds of good grub. It was a great stop.

After a brief respite, we learned that the Canadian police would escort us across the Ambassador Bridge into Detroit. We’d even have our own lane at the border crossing. This was the most efficient, courteous and cooperative police force on the entire run and other than one fellow who got arrested (he had an outstanding warrant somewhere in the US), we all made it across without incident.

As the convoy ripped through the closed streets of Windsor, we felt like Champ Car drivers…speeds were brisk if not insane but the closed streets ensured maximum safety.  The Bullrun helicopter covered the rollout and what must have been an amazing site as 106 exotic cars lined the Ambassador Bridge. There were lots of thumbs up from other drivers stuck in traffic and again, as we left Canada, I couldn’t help but feel sorry that I didn’t have more time to explore this amazing place and meet more of the wonderful people.

Once into Michigan, we settled into our long arduous drive to Chicago.

The fond memories of Canada would soon be replaced by the Michigan Militia, aka “The State Troopers.”  These guys were staked out every 5 miles for 125 miles. Reports suggest that every off duty, reserve and available officer was gathered to stake out the route. Dozens of people were stopped, some even searched at great length. We heard the Ford GT got stopped and ticketed, some were even ticketed twice within a short distance. It was ugly. While there are beautiful roads in Michigan, I could do without the militant State Troopers.

We dodged any entanglements by pacing ourselves at a more moderate pace (using Nick and Dan’s strategy) and by using an alternate route, but after we merged for the final roll into Chicago, we met up with Carl Lewis in the Spyker. His co driver (the CEOP of Spyker) was clearly set on getting there ahead of us and although the Spyker was lighter, it shares the same powerplant as the RS4 and with traffic, they were unable to make a break from us. This pissed the CEO off to no end. In fact, so much so, that he gave us the one finger salute. Seems the Dutch are less cordial than the Canadians. The race was on.  We hung with them from a roll on at virtually any speed. Dang…this Audi is amazing. At a toll booth stop, the Spyker used the shoulder and dove into traffic, we were a bit more docile in our tactics.  

JP had the hift of driving on this leg, so I navigated. Collectively, we agreed to bypass the freeway grid lock and roll into Chicago by using State Street through Southern Chicago. We felt that this slick trick might help us beat the Spyker and keep us ahead of the hard charging teams which surely would not be far behind. South Chicago is a rough neighborhood to say the least. At one point, we rolled up on a Donk Monte Carlo (a car with giant 26 wheels and a $10,000 paint job) and ask two Rastafarian-looking dudes for directions…they were totally cool and their directions helped immensely. (Thanks, whoever you were!) Dan and Nick stayed on the main route and continued their moderate (but brisk) pace.

The gamble worked our way this time and the Audi rolled into House of Blues Hotel in 7th again, ahead of Carl Lewis’ team…a small but sweet victory.  The Ford GT, the Ruf Porsche and a couple of the Benzes had beat us again, as did the girls in the A8…these were clearly emerging as the front runners.

The Panoz followed about 15 minutes later and still scored a top 15 finish. Clearly, Dan and Nick’s strategy of maintaining a smooth, steady, moderate pace was working almost as well as the “short cuts and higher speed” strategy. The Panoz was definitely of great interest to onlookers…no one had ever seen one in person before so we were pleased that the car was attracting attention.

The party that night was at the House of Blues. The hotel itself was eclectic but nice, and the food at the buffet was good, albeit a bit scarce.  The party however, was a bit of a sausage fest (too many dudes) and as such, most of us took the opportunity to pontificate about tomorrow’s route and to seek out alternative activities.

So far, with two days under our belt, the teams were getting a feel for the event and it was clear that the biggest challenges lay ahead. It was clear that the Audi was up to be driven hard. Tomorrow, JP and I would be in the Panoz for it’s first real wring-out.   We also agreed to change our strategy by hanging with the front runners, relying on their radar detectors, scanners, and other electronics to help insulate us.