Day Three began in Chicago at the House of Blues.

To mix things up a bit, the tour would actually have to trek north aways to a Ferrari dealer near Lake Forest, Illinois, just north of Chicago.

Once again, there was a mad dash to get to the first stop, a scant 35 miles away.

JP and I set out in the Panoz and because of freeway gridlock, we once again chose surface streets.  We rolled into the Ferrari dealer in the top 10 (not that it mattered) and were greeted by a stunning show room, more goodie bags (we’ve been getting goody bags for the last two days, along with Champagne and chocolate covered strawberries at every night stop).

The dealership was packed with McLaren SLR’s, Aston Martins, even an F1 Ferrari chassis, straight from Europe.

As the crowds gathered, each car was hand inspected by Ferrari technicians. Fluids were topped off, tire pressures were checked and lug nut torque was verified. Classy touch.

This attention to the car’s condition invariably led to speculation that we were going to Indy for our lunch stop…it made sense if you looked at a map.

For the hour that we sat around after breakfast, rumors spread quickly. Some said St Louis, some said Kansas City, I swore it’d be Indy.

By this time, we were getting friendly with the AMG Dolls (Jasmine and Ashley) and Team Riecke (Jay and Byron). Both were skilled drivers who took reasonable numbers of calculated risks, although Team AMG Dolls were definitely pushing the envelope. We strategize with Team Riecke a bit and after learning the final destination, we decided to stick close to them at all costs.

The tour was very late getting started. Rollout wasn’t until after 11AM and as we pulled up to fetch our route card, a quick glance revealed that our lunch stop (at Anheuser Busch) was about 200 miles away…and that the lunch was starting in an hour. Now, the Panoz is fast, but it ain’t that fast.

Nevertheless, we tore out of Northern Chicago on the heels of the front runners, including Rob Feretti’s Ford GT and Team Riecke. Within minutes, our plan unraveled as the top three teams bugged out with some, shall we say, aggressive maneuvers. For us to have any chance at a top ten finish, today was going to be about navigation.

Armed with Garmin’s stellar GPS system (and XM radio…thanks to our Panoz buddies), we settled in for a brisk drive in the staggering humidity of central Illinois.

Once again, we found ourselves near the front and soon found ourselves in a pack of Porsches. The Panoz did a brilliant job of keeping pace with the Porsches on the deserted roads of Southern Illinois. After witnessing another cop stop, we soldiered on and picked up the pace a bit. Without a radar detector, we were easy pickings in within an hour, I got my first ticket. I was going with the flow of traffic, but the decals on the Panoz’s sexy profile screamed “pull me over.”  I paid the ticket in cash to the nice officer and we were back on our way.

We rolled into St Louis for the lunch stop in 7th place. Our “gourmet lunch” was little more than a sandwich, a cookie and all the beer you can drink. Yeah…that’s a good idea…a few beers for the road. Suffice to say we didn’t partake of the party (as I recall, none of the drivers did) and in fact, we bribed the brewery tour guide to literally run us through the tour. The goal for our little group of front runners was to get through the tour so we could get our route card.

We did exactly that and hopped into the Panoz sweating from our sprint through the brewery.

The night stop would be the Intercontinental Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri.

Although we were among the first teams to leave St. Louis, we were still set on a strategy of balancing speed with navigation.

There were few route options, but we stuck to side roads until close to Kansas City when we hopped back on the freeway. Within minutes, we got sight of Team AMG Dolls. They were really pushing their AMG E55 and we opted to use them as rabbits, staying real close, but at a more moderate speed. As we entered the final leg, we were back on side streets.

It was a drag race from light to light and the Panoz was door handle to door handle with the girls. Despite calling the Concierge for directions and following them to the T, somehow, I botched the navigation and we ended up two blocks off course.  We still arrived in the top 10, but behind the AMG dolls.  We got beat…by girls. Granted, these girls had skills and big cajones, but lesser men might’ve lost a night’s sleep over that.

Dan and Nick showed up a short while later…ticket free….in the Audi RS4. They still managed a top 20 finish.

The Intercontinental was a great host and the buffet that night was some of the best food we had. The rooms were great, the pool area was great and Kansas City is quite a little mecca of activity despite its sleepy Midwest setting.

Once again, champagne and chocolate covered strawberries awaited us along with another goody bag of shirts, back rub and other sundries.

The tally for team MagnaFlow so far: 3 tickets, 14 Red Bulls and all mostly top ten finishes.

On this night, we met two Brits who were part of Team Boeing. They were running the tour without a car….they simply showed up at the airport where they were handed a ticket to that night’s destination. Even they didn’t know the route and since they were on a plane, they couldn’t call it in to us drivers from the air. They were great guys who truly epitomized the spirit of Bullrun.