Fireball Day One – Keeping it Real

Day one of the Fireball Transcontinental Rally.

Last night we received our driver packet with instructions that our first leg was to start at the Amway Center in Orlando. It also stressed that this rally was not for speed or best time, but to obtain points during our coast to coast journey while arriving at the various legs during a predetermined timed window. If we arrived too early it would indicate that you were speeding and you were disqualified. Arrive too late; you’re disqualified for that day’s leg of the race. For leg one, organizers estimated that it would take eight to nine hours to drive from Orlando to the Mississippi/Louisiana state line, a distance of just over 600 miles.

I was then notified that my sponsored car, the TransCon Ambulance had blown its driveshaft while driving down from Indiana and that they were in the process of trying to locate another. It was doubtful that they would make it to the first leg of the race.

Assignments for the day:

Assignment one was photographing at least three State troopers with patrol car while it was parked next to your car with driver.

Assignment two was to photograph each states welcome sign while holding a newspaper dated 9/29/2007 with the car in the background.

Assignment three was a riddle to solve that we were given upon departure of the Amway Center. The riddle, “chill out with the Queen of Bagdad”.

Prior to arriving at the starting point, I fired up my Garmin Zumo GPS and located a FHP barracks that was on our way. As we were pulling in, a Lieutenant FHP officer was checking into work. I identified myself as a retired deputy and began telling him about the rally. He stopped me mid sentence while chuckling and related that all the troopers in Florida were aware of the race and he would allow us to photograph him and his car because he understood that our race was a charity event aimed at raising money for the “Missing Children’s Network.” However he requested that we drive smart and safe.

The Veil Guy posed for the photograph, thanked the Lieutenant and we were off for the staging of the event.

At 8:00 am we arrived at the Amway Center, checked in and made final adjustments to our car. At 9:00 am the Orlando Police Department provided a motorcycle escort for the seventy plus cars entered into the rally, onto Interstate 75.

Once on the Highway I did a Google on my laptop and found that there was a Dairy Queen just off of I-10 in Bagdad Florida, riddle solved.

As we were aware that the Florida Highway Patrol use mostly Ka radar, we decided that we would pair up the Beltronics Sti radar detector along side the Valentine One and do a side by side comparison of the two.

Alert One – 35.5
It didn’t take long for our first alert as just ten miles north, the V1 radar detector gave a short alert for Ka and a second later the Bel STi went into full tilt alerting at 35.5 (Ka Band). As we crested an overpass a half mile away we saw a FHP vehicle parked in the median running instant on radar.

Alert Two – 34.7
About fifteen miles later the STi alerted first to a 34.7 (Ka band) and a few seconds later the Valentine One lit up indicating Ka band. We crested another overpass that was over a mile away from our first alert and saw that a “Fireballer” pulled over with a trooper standing next to the driver’s side door.

Alert Three – 34.7
The coast was clear the next fifty miles till our STi detector lit up again at 34.7. The Valentine radar detector lagged behind a good three seconds before it first alerted Ka. Ahead we saw a trooper parked in a row of trees in the median approximately a mile from our first warning.

At 10:45 am we arrived at the I-10 turn off and headed west. It was here that I began explaining to my co-driver the reason for the painted horizontal lines that crossed the pavement in sections. These I related were used to measure distance at predetermined locations so police could measure speed using VASCAR or another timing device from patrol cars or aircraft. I cautioned him to slow down after crossing the first set of lines and count out at least another set prior to speeding up, to avoid these types of speeding violations. Just as I finished, the “Blinder Dude” from Blinder Xtreme Team called on my cell phone relating that he was forty five miles behind me and that he had just received a citation for doing 91 in a 70 and that he was clocked by aircraft.

Alert Four – 34.7
West through the panhandle of Florida seemed pretty uneventful the first 150 miles. During this leg we had the Astron Martin, another BMW, and the Ferrari Spider all taking turns at the rabbit position (lead car in pack). Just 20 miles east of our Bagdad stop, co-driver The Veil Guy took lead with the Aston Martin a quarter mile behind. As we crossed a clearing of trees in the median, we saw an approaching FHP vehicle east bound approaching us, as the Veil Guy started to decelerate, both detectors lit up simultaneously, giving us a good indication that we were just nailed with deadly instant on.

In the mirror we both noticed the FHP vehicle turn into the median and as he pulled onto the pavement the Aston Martin pulled into the right lane allowing the officer to cross and to give chase.

Pretty much knowing that our goose was cooked; we pulled into the shoulder and awaited our punishment. As the trooper’s car pulled up behind, horns of the Aston, BMW and Ferrari gave short beeps as they passed.

The trooper walked up to the driver’s side and asked the same question that I uttered thousands of times before in my law enforcement career, “Do you have any idea how fast you were going?” Bob, being an old pro with several tickets under his belt from prior encounters just sat there with a dumbfounded look and uttered, “No, was I speeding officer?” He replied, yes, ninety in a seventy mile an hour zone. After Bob offered up his driver’s license, I asked the officer if he needed to see my identification too as I removed my license from my retired sheriff’s badge case. He asked where I was an officer and I replied that I was from Arizona and that I was on business (didn’t say police business) and had met with a Lt. (dropping a name) from his agency earlier that day.

He walked back to his car and a few moments later came back telling us that we needed to slow down…..

Realizing we had lucked out at this encounter, we maintained a respectable speed until pulling into the Dairy Queen. Here several of our teammates were waiting to see if we were going to make it into the check in. The clerk of the Dairy Queen then also came out  saying that she had heard over the FHP scanner that troopers were lined up waiting for a group of Fireballers twenty miles out, that someone had called in that we were driving over 140 MPH.

The Veil Guy and I both chuckled saying that we were not part of that group, however we had been pulled over for doing ninety.

We picked up a Florida newspaper for the photo shoot at the state line and completed our assignment at the “Queen of Bagdad” and heading back onto the Interstate. At this time the “Blinder Dude” called on his cell phone saying that the white Corvette had been stopped doing 140 mph and that the driver was arrested and taken to jail.

Alert Five – 34.7
A few miles west of Bagdad after going underneath an overpass, we received a 34.7 alert on both detectors simultaneously. Looking over into the entrance ramp, I observed a FHP vehicle clocking west bound traffic from behind.

Alert Six – 34.7
A few miles west of the state line we got another 34.7 alert simultaneously on both detectors as we passed a thick grove of trees in the center median. We never saw an officer, but assumed from the nature of the alert, that one was on the other side of the median shooting east bound traffic.

After crossing into Alabama, we pulled into the rest area and scrounged through some trash bins to find a newspaper for the Alabama welcome sign. Finding several, we took them all (as not to leave any for other contestants) and rode over the State welcome signs and got our first set of photographs.

Driving on the bay bridge on I-10 approaching Mobile, the STi went full tilt 34.7 for at lease one mile while the V1 remained silent till it started finally it began chirping. Over on the east bound lane we saw what appeared to be a police light bar pass behind a cement bunker.

Here we fired up the GPS locating the area Highway Patrol Office in downtown Mobile. Here we saw several Highway Patrol cars, but no officers. We then searched the GPS again and found another AHP barracks a few miles west.

Alert Seven – 10.506 X band!
A mile south of the barracks the STi indicated that we were getting a strong alert on 10.506 X band and the V1 was also alerting to X band. First we brushed it off as a false alert until we noticed as we approached the GPS location the signal was getting stronger.

We arrived finding a parked Alabama Highway Patrol car with an antique Python dual band antenna system installed in the car, parked behind an empty double wide trailer. Bob and I both commented that we were glad that this car was parked as normally we both shrug off X band alerts as false alerts as they are so rare.

The remainder of our journey through Alabama was pretty much uneventful and we pulled into our semi final staging area at a rest area at MP 2. Here we turned in our packets and several troopers from Louisiana were staging to provide our group with a police escort to Baton Rouge.

I chatted with the Sergeant who related that his troop used the LTI 20/20 laser gun exclusively on I-10. I asked him if he ever encountered a car with laser jammers and he related that he had never heard of such a thing. I grabbed my Kustom Ultralyte laser gun from the our car and handed it to the Sergeant as another Fireballer with a set of Blinder M20’s installed on his Chrysler pulled into the rest area and asked him to shoot. At first he seemed somewhat confused at not obtaining a reading and then commented that I should get my laser gun checked out and calibrated.

As the Bat Mobile drove in with an Escort 8500 X50 that I provided for the rally, I asked  Batman and Robin if they had any police encounters and they related that they made the first day of the race ticket free, but that they had gotten allot of stares from parked troopers and passing motorists.

As cut off time approached for the semi final check in approached all the Fireballers lined up their cars. Leading the pack were two LHP patrol cars and to the rear there was one LHP patrol car. At exactly 6:00 pm we headed into Louisiana from with a full police escort.

The officers provided us escort through the state on I-10 until we arrived at Baton Rouge. Here the Baton Rouge Police Department took over and provided escort to the motel, arriving at 7:15 pm.

Day one was a blast and we all arrived safely minus one competitor.

After the today’s event another competitor commented that our regiment of radar detector tests that we were performing, maybe the most intense “real world comparison test” that has ever been performed and that he would be interested in the results so he could gear up for this springs Cannonball Run.