About this website

I love these sort of races, and have read all that I can about some of the older US events as well as the more recent Cannonball and Gumball events. I blame it on watching the Cannonball Run movie as an impressionable child.

By accident, I only recently found about the Cannonball Cup. Keen to learn more, I searched the Internet for information but could only find a few random forum posts, and ended up writing a short blog post about the race with the little information I had found.

Then Len Walsh, who co-drove the 1984 Cannonball Cup winning car (later disqualified), got in contact and, over a series of emails, told me more about the race.

I started hearing stories of controversy around who won the race, teams using rental cars, a car stolen from Peter Brock and used in the race, large numbers of spectators lining the street at the start, large scale arrests of drivers, and lavish ceremonies.

Then I found out about the Cannonball Paradise to Perth that happened just a few weeks before the Cannonball Cup.

These races were just as interesting as the US Cannonball Runs that I had read about in Brock Yates Book. Why was there next to no information out there about them online?

I started putting together this website and attempting to contact the drivers involved, hoping they would want to share their story and leave a record of these great races online. So far I've managed to contact many of the people involved, and all have been enthusiastic and happy to share their stories, as well as many photos and memorabilia from the races. Even some video footage of the Cannonball Cup has surfaced, which was taken with the expectation of producing a documentary on the event but never happened.

All of what you find on this website has been kindly provided by many of the drivers and people involved, so thank you to everyone wo has helped.

Can you help?

If you drove in one of the races, or were involved in anyway I would love to hear from you and share your story here.

Even if you saw one of the races or can fill in any blanks or correct any incorrect information on the website please contact me.