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//August 6, 2006
Day 5: Hollywood Poker/Team Mosler Drivers: Troy Hanson, Tim Route: Vail, Las Vegas It is truly amazing the effect of alcohol at high altitude. Combine that with the ordeal of heat exposure and water loss I experienced and you can believe me when I say “I got drunk off of one beer.” Unfortunately, Andrew was hell-bent on everyone drink several shots of jagermeister. The town of Vail is such a beautiful place and the rains cleared out so we could actually see its beauty. Some of the best driving roads throughout the Run were shortly ahead of us. As we headed down the steep, winding roads we noticed an abundance of police and Bullrun vehicles on the side of the road. Since this was the longest day by far, over 9 hours, we decided to set a comfortable pace. The A/C problem however didn’t help and once again I found myself truly in an oven. I had already survived 2 days in the cockpit, today was about 9 hours and the air temps outside reached into the 100’s. We stopped for fuel and noticed some of the TV Crew, including Daniel Green. In fine fashion, once they realized how hot it was in the car (nearly 133 degrees at this point) they decided they wanted to try something for the camera. So we purchased a thermometer from the store and placed it on the dashboard – the temps climbed – 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, 150 and stopped working at 158 degrees – That was $17 dollars ill spent. The all carbon fiber dashboard was so hot, you couldn’t even touch it. So we decided to fry an egg on it – it only cooked halfway through. I’m a racecar driver not a scientist, so I don’t really know the temp it takes to cook an egg, whatever it is we were close. We did a few high speed shots for the crew and the 3 amigos (Team Mosler, Shelby GT-H and the Porsche) continued towards Vegas. Along the way the Porsche GT3RS ran out of gas and the Cuban Brother’s bus pulled over to help and somewhere in process left – minus one Cuban Brother. He jumped in to Tim’s Porsche. We made routine stops for fuel, food and the ice down – that seemed the only way to keep our core temps down and turning us into Vegetables. About 7 hours into the leg, I couldn’t drive anymore. My body at this point was about to shut down. I couldn’t hold in any water and my skin and throat was becoming dry. Tim from Chequered Flag took the wheel and made it to shelter in the Justin’s Shelby (ahhhh – A/C!) About 15 miles outside of Vegas we pulled over so Miguel could get into character. While on the side of the road, a pickup truck pulled neared to look at the Mosler. Three men got out and started asking questions – one of them turned out to be (Driver of the #7 Jim Beam NASCAR in the Nextel Cup Series) Robby Gordon. He was in town for an off-road event – which I later heard he won. It was great seeing Robby again, both being racers, we share a lot of the same friends. I was feeling up to the 20 minute drive into the city and made it to the Caesar’s palace shortly before 8:00. There was a nice party at the Venus Pool and later an all out bash at PURE. I wish I could tell you more, but you know the saying, "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."
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