The Cannonball Run brought the era of cross-country racing into public consciousness.
The Four Ball Rally
marked its end.
Both races represent the extraordinary skill and dedication of drivers who tested themselves against America's open roads.
After the 1984 Four Ball Rally, that era of road racing closed forever.
A B O U T
The Four Ball Rally World Record
October, 1984. My best friend Tim and I are racing across America at 140mph+.
No sponsors, no stops.
That was America’s last cross-country road race. It marked the end of an era of history and culture that had been going on since the Pony Express.
“The goal of the
Four Ball Rally was to run the longest race possible in America.”
You’ve heard of the Cannonball Run…
Brock Yates organized the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash from 1971-1979.
After founding and editing the cultural touchstone of a publication that was Car and Driver, he put together something even more remarkable: a cross-country, quasi-legal road race in protest against the 55 mph speed limit. What came to be known as the Cannonball Run captured the imagination of the whole country. Yates got celebrities involved, media attention, the whole thing.
Dave Heinz and Dave Yarborough set the Cannonball record at 32 hours and 51 minutes in 1979. Those were exceptional drivers.
By 1979, authorities shut the Cannonball down. But some of us kept going…albeit, quieter.
But the Four Ball Rally was a whole different animal.
The Four Ball Rally happened in 1984. The guys who showed up for the Four Ball were serious drivers with documented driving experience. The goal was to create an even more credible race, with an even longer route from Boston to San Diego—the longest cross-country race possible in America.
Most of us weren’t looking for publicity; we there to race. We had other jobs. We weren’t professionals. And yet, the guys I drove with has still spent years learning the routes, the jurisdictions, and the proper mods. Porsche even sent over a team of professional drivers to try to capture First Place; that’s how significant the Four Ball Rally win meant to the global racing community.
We knew when we started the race that it was a sort of trap. Insurance companies were paying attention. Law enforcement had figured out how to coordinate across state lines. The window for quasi-legal cross-country road races was closing right as we drove through it.
They don’t make ‘em
like they used to…!
Today, with instant media broadcasts and stricter law enforcement, it’s virtually impossible to organize these kinds of races anymore.
For those reasons, the Four Ball Rally world record still stands. Not because people can’t drive faster… but because nobody will ever get the chance to try.
A memoir of America’s last great road race
One Mile at a Time is a memoir written by Edward Rahill about his experiences racing in the Four Ball Rally, which became the last organized cross-country race America has seen to this day.