This is where we will post daily updates as we do the Players Run starting in Seattle on June 2nd at the Fairmont hotel in Seattle, and ending on June 9th at the Bellagio Hotel June 10th. We welcome comments on the event as it unfolds.

Good evening. Today was a spectacular day.! Met a nice guy in the morning who was a local in Ashland who helped me  find a gas station that was open at 7 Am to prepare for the start. . Sleepy little town didn't have much available. We started out with a police escort and because of yesterday nobody wanted to take lead. I think I menrtioned I was leading a pack that all got nicked yesterday and now have to go to court in Portalnd on criminal charges, and I was the only one to escape the group because I did not pull over. They all got a bum rap and were not speeding when they got caught but regardless are now in the machine of justice. So with them being gun shy I took the lead and with the scanner we ran a a steady but not psycho pace with about 13 cars. Mostly the Lambo Gallardo and the Modena keeping close tabs, with Peter and Bullent in the Gt3 always close behind. We charged into California and were soon into spectacular moutains for at least 125 miles. Was amazing driving up the twisties and lots of excitment since passing the cars we quickly came up upon was difficult. One big event was a truck that was maybe late 70's ford f50, that was loaded with firewood.  Car was clearly unsafe and he was never touching his breaks in front of me with the truck swinging back and forth climbing up the hill. He was going way to fast for that vehicle and when he saw us he reasonibly quickly allowed us to pass. 10 minutes later I find get a call on the walkies that somebody is down. Since I was lead car I pull over and realize only 3 or 4 immediately behind me. I thought one of us went over the cliff and soon discover it is the truck that went over.  He should be dead but a tree caught the truck and he emerges from it relativly unscathed. Knowing the cops are going to blame us, we keep going and later 2 of our vettes get pulled and asked about the wreck. As expected they say one of us cut him off and not only is it not true, one of the last guys in group has it on tape. I saw picture of truck abnd it is no more. Supposdly made news but truth is he either didnt have brakes or didn't use them and went over driving too fast.

Later the radar detector working with the scanners work superb, and I hear over scaenner they mentioining our Lotus specifically, I assume because it was lead car in our group. Every time the cops saw us though we were doing 60 like clockwork and I know they were frustrated that obviously they could not bleive 12 exotics would be doing the speed limit every single time they saw us. We then took a scenic detour through the redwood forrest which was amazing, and I have a picture of the Lotus driving through a huge 1000 year old Red wood tree. Got some lunch  with about 10 of the guys and relaxed for an hour since we made good time. Tara then took over and drove the last 125 miles on in and I have to say I was impressed with her driving as the cemera crew recorded the action. Since we were lead car I told guys we were switching and that they could pass if bored but it ended up being her driving a levels nobody expted and Peter my crazy Grman friend in the GT3 said she forced them to even push harder. Kudus to the wife! Drove into San Fran and was jammed with Traffic. Was worried about the Lotus overheating but the fan kicked on and we were good. Lotus ran flassless and we seemed to get quite a reputation for having an agressive running car. The Hotel scene at the Fairmont we like a huge event with all thethe street in front of the hotel blocked off so we could all display the cars. Steve Saleen sent an S-7 over who will join us on the run. Also an enzo joined us today, so expect more things to come. We are going to go tour the Saleen factory later I am told which is exciting to me since we own one. Had a great party at the penthouse of the fairmont and catering and service was top notch and met and made many new friends. Tara is going to drive a ferrari 360 for part of tommorws stage and I will run in the Lotus with another co driver. The only dissapointment was a pal Jeff with another Black esprit that has 650 HP was delevered to the hotel to run in the event with us and snapped a drive shaft 8 blocks away from the hotel on a test run. So he will contuine to run in his cab 996. Wanted to have us together running to show the Lotus domination for the event but not going to happen. Anyways, we run to LA tommorow and should see some of the coast. Have quite a few friends expecting to meet us in LA and looking forward to it. As always plenty of stories to tell with not enough time to write at current moment. Fort anybody going to meet the event in LA we are going to arrive at the Mondrian and please send any pictures you take of us in the car. It seems every new stop has more and more people. Hope you end up being one of them.

Cheers,

Robb  Please visit www.darkcydracing.com for more information on Team Darkcyd's participation in the 2005 Players Run driven by Robb and Tara Rill,from Seattle to Vegas, starting June 3rd to June 9th.

 Today was the best yet by far. We started out with a police escort through the streets of San Francisco and people were amazed at all the cars. Steve Saleen sent an S7 to run with us and we went  in a parade through some really hilly streets including that famous street theat is brick and winds back and forth in between some houses. The roads are terrible and I spent an hour prior to- leaving trying to get the Lotus washed, and ended up doing it myself at the Garage since it was too early to find someone. We all charged out pretty hard and hit the typical trafic associated with Cali. On the way, I friend Colin from the European Gumball met up with us a a gas station to say hello and he and his father were kind enough to bring us some digital tapes for the camera mounted on the car, so meeting up with them was a necessity. We drove up the coast to Hurst Castle which had some amazing roads that were very tight. Alex and Danielle in the Lambo Gallardo, and Phil in the Modena ran hard with us, and things were great till we hit contruction work. Mid way up there was road work and traffic was backed up for an hour and Peter and Bullent thought I was behind them in traffic so they told me via the walkies, I should go up the wrong way to bypass traffic. Make a long story short, they said I was clear when I was not and I ended up pissing off quite a few vehicles going the wrong way. The good news I was now in front of the line that was being held back so when we we were realeased I just had to pass 15 cars and then me and Alex in the Gallrdo spent 65 miles all to ourselves up chasing cars on some if the windiest roads I have ever done along the Pacific coast. We got great video of it with the in car camera mount. We made it to Hurst castle in Second place which was pretty good. Hurst castle is a amazing place, but it would take two hours to see the tour so we had to skip it which was a dissappointment.

It was the tiime for Tara to drive the Ferrarii Modena Stadale owened by Jerry who got nicked by the cops in the group running with me in Seattle, and Tara was quite eager to test it. We ran in a pack of about 10 and with me in lead car with Jason as my codriver we came upon a trooper who must have been looking for us. so we tailed him for 20 miles videotapping and as soon as he pulled over to the side of the road to get behind us , we took off hard and he went poof and dissappeared. We lost all the cars following and came upon a truck that was going about 110 and wanted to race us. This reminded me of the incident yesterday with the other truck and all I could do was laugh at the fact this guy wanted nothing more than to run with us. We ended up at a gas station with him where he told us he could have gone much faster but wanted to be safe. I'm thinking he lost a screw or two since the road coniditions were rough and the Lotus kept bottoming out.  The HRE rims are one inch biger then stock and even though I had the fender wells trimmed it still scraps under fast conditions with bumpy roadfs.  We drove quite fast within our limits into La and ended up at the Mondrian hotel in 6th. It should be noted our guys Alex in the Lambo and Patrick in the Modena were one and two. OS our roup should get major props.  Tara came in with Jerry about 20 minutes later about 20th.  There was a guy called Birdman that is banned from the event and promoting the Ultimate Rally which is a true race done by the infamous Kimble and was not a welome  guest since he was banned after last year, and was told after tryng to impress people with his 650 HP Porsche he broke down an hour away from Hurst Castle. I think Marcus the event orgainizer was not too dissappointed to hear this news.

At the hotel, we had an amazing dinner at the hotel which is considered one of the trendiest in LA. Steve Saleen stopped by and is being a track car for tommorow event where we will do a track day at California speedway where we will be led to by police escort some 60 miles from here. We had no trouble with the police and the scanner was quiet. All in all a great day and was happy to have a freind Jason fly in from Amerstdam to see us. We go downstairs to the cars to grab some items we needed and a girl thart was picked up by a guy in the NSX who basically left me when I almost ran out of gas was doing a photo shoot half nude on the Car. I really thought this was quite funny for reasons I cannot go into at this point. Needless to say, I think she made some new friends.

Im quite tired now and need to pack the gear for tommorow so thats all for tongiht.

Cheers,

Robb

Players Run 05 After Party and Summary

I am on the plane on the way back to Florida and thinking of all the crazy things that happened. Let’s start with after we arrived at the Bellagio. I can say that now since, nobody showed up to arrest anyone.  There was a special place to park on the cars, which at a place like the Bellagio is a big plus. We only had a couple hours to get ready, and one of the things I needed was a Tux since it was a black tie affair. The funnier part is on the way to Vegas from San Diego with the police chopper above and police just ahead, Tara is on the phone with the Concierge demanding they arrange a Tux for me without ever measuring me and have it waiting for us in the room when we got there. The Bellagio being a 5 star hotel not only was willing and able to accommodate the request, they got the measurements perfect, and it was in the room as promised with our luggage ahead of us. Top notch. We quickly got ready, and were ready for the awards ceremony by 8PM. As we entered the main area, we were interviewed for our final thoughts by one of the Camera men for the Players Run movie being made, and I have to say I felt a little conservative since he was quite pimped out in a purple suit. My only radical departure was wearing a Black Bentley baseball cap backwards with my tux, I bought only hours before at a gas station for $5.99 (my cheapest purchase of anything on the trip), since I happen to like the 550HP Continental GT and it might end up in my new garage as soon as the  house is finished to accommodate it (too many cars not enough Garage space-lol).

The room was packed with about 150 drivers, co drivers, and guests that flew in. We supposedly made brief mentions on CNN and the AP picked us up regarding the issues back in Seattle. I interviewed Bill and Cindy who got flown in by Chopper due to the Lambo /police incident and tried to interview a few others who stuck out in my mind who ran hard with me including Alex in Danielle in the Black Gallardo who decided to fly in for the last leg and avoid the cops altogether , and 2 Brits who ran in an open top Lotus similar to an Elise but weighed only 1200 pounds that got pulled over for a British tag by a California FHP who demanded from Ashley the passenger his license until he protested that since he did not have a steering wheel on his side of the car the cop got the wrong man! Unfortunately my battery on the camera ran out shortly after and I could not get too many more. Then Roy Cats the crazy host of the initial party in Seattle, who I think is one of the most memorable characters on this thing, got up at the podium and demanded we all share our stories since many people did not hear what happened to everyone else. He started with a funny little story about since he is single and constantly dating new young women, that he thought he would impress her by showing his car collection which included the 20 cars in his possession that we all shipped over to his house including my Lotus, several Ferraris, a Renntech SL 600, Porches all of kind represented, and even aother like a tricked out Dodge Ram truck and many others. He asked her to pick whatever car she wanted so they could drive to dinner, and since he forgot to mention only the four Lambo's were his, he hoped she would picked one of his cars. Not that wouldn’t impress anyone in the first place, but funny as hell none the less since by luck she picked one of his cars. The next funny story of his was when we all drove through the Red wood forest. There is a place where you can drive your car through a tree and that was a checkpoint. We have a picture of the Lotus barely making it through. While Roy knew his car was much wider than anything else in existence, he wanted to do it anyway. Needless to say the Lambo didn’t fit. The funnier part is when one of the crew walked up to him after and said I was pretty sure you wouldn’t make it since the other Lambo that tried couldn’t fit either. Hilarious. We then took turns telling our highlights which for Tara included dirt tracking the Lotus backwards at Califronia speedway, and for me racing up to Hurst Castle dog fighting with Alex in the Gallardo  after beating all the stalled traffic going the wrong way when Bullent in the GT3 told me it was all clear, only to later discover I was already ahead of him and he was clearly wrong. We finished second at that stage.

After hearing many hilarious stories including many I had not heard before such a Reza in the 650 HP Porsche pissing in a cup and then lacking the brains to realize what would happen to them when they tried to toss it out the window at over 100MPH put everyone on the floor.  Goes to the old saying never try to piss in the wind.The scene was captured on video and I feel bad for the detailer who has to clean the interior. Brian one of the Camera guys revealed his trick to slowing us down for certain shots that was so smart I couldn’t help but laugh. They had a radar gun in their car so they simply shot our car when they needed us to slow us down since out of the blue our radar would go nuts and we would freak out. I had wondered why that had happened out of the blue with no cops appearing and chalked it up to faulty radar. Now I know the truth.

Marcus then gave the awards ceremony, which included best car, best player (it is technically a poker run), and best spirit. Peter and Bullent were runners up with their GT3RS of which there are only 3 in the country, with the winner being Roy Cats since he has the only Brown Lambo Diablo in existence. Best hand went to Bill and Cindy in the Yellow Murcialago with a Royal Flush, and best spirit went to the 2 Germans in a new Mercedes SUV who constantly changed outfits from Sadam Hussein, and George Bush, Chewbaca and Darth Vadar, and Denver Jailbirds with Orange Jump suits.

We all got Plaques with our names on it for whoever made it all the way stopping at every checkpoint. We then changed Venues to Club Lure in the New Wynn Casino. We had a private VIP room and the bouncer made me remove my Bentley Hat. Was very upscale with quite erotic dancing going on between women, and I then was reminded of what VIP means to them. I don’t drink and my friends Peter and Bullent only wanted a few mixed drinks. She then told me it didn’t work that way and there was only bottle service in the VIP room which consisted of only things like 350 dollar bottles of vodka, and DOM. If my pals had any interest in that I might have said the hell with it and bought one but they really only wanted a Jack and coke and Tara only water. So I almost got in a fight with her since we needed a quota to fill of one bottle for every 3 people she insisted. I don’t like being told what to do so I simply refused. She backed off since other players seemed willing to make up with the quote themselves and the bar tab I think was in excess of 6k.

We then decided to change venues since some of the women were willing to experience Vegas in other ways they normally never would and we hired 3 limos to take us to CH2 which is basically the most well known and world famous strip club and often has up to 400 of the prettiest women in the club at the same time. Most of the women never had been to one and liked the excitement associated with seeing the world normally reserved for men. I admit to playing the roll of instigator and bought some of the women dances to see their expressions. I admit it was the best money I spent on others on the trip. One instance with Julian and his wife Kimberly provided much amusement. She apparently and happily enjoyed her Dance, but when I bought one for her husband the tables turned. Although he was clearly interested, he kept looking over for approval and wasn't getting it. The girl stopped and I paid her anyway.. I guess there is a double standard after all-lol. Another highlight was Markus’s (the organizer of the event)  brother who is 6-7 and also hilarious. He is from Munich and looked a little stressed, so I got him a dance and had her smack him around a bit. A little pleasure and pain. I think it was the highlight of the evening, and we left about 4:30 but they have a picture of themselves leaving with the sun coming up. Too funny.

The next morning I called about 8 of the Players to meet us for breakfast at 12 and by the time we got there was about 30 people. It seemed nobody wanted the event to end which is how we felt. We all swapped more stories, exchanged phone numbers and email, and I explained how I was going to set up a section on the site for everybody to upload their pictures and video which I am having professionally edited for all to have including visitors to this site. I feel I made some really good friends with the highlight being Peter and Bullent. I think Peter with his strong German accent is the funniest person I ever met, and had to laugh when the Germans told me he also sounds funny to them too when he speaks German. He is such a great guy and shipped my car without even asking for money and which has still not been paid yet. His partner in crime Bullent who is the yin to his yang and always so serious yet laid back, makes their relationship even more comical for me.

All in all it was one of the best times of my life. I cannot reiterate how professional the organization was and my hats go off to Markus and his wife Valerie, Stephan and the two Tim’s which I called t1 and t2. It is very difficult to pull off an event like this with so much to potentially go wrong, and whatever did we never knew about it. Tara and I will definitely do it again, and she even talked about doing her own car. If that’s the case, I may have to let her race the Lotus as I chase her in Luxury in a Continental GT. You will have to wait and See.

I have too many people to thank so please understand if I forget to mention your name. Starting with Jimmy for prepping the car, Sound Ideas in Gainesville for installing the Alpine IPOD and Main head unit, Ryan the trucker who got the Lotus in perfect shape to Seattle. Car Toys in Seattle for finishing what Sound Ideas didn’t have time to do (although the jammer is a scam), Roy Cats for handling the car in Seattle and even paying for the work in advance, Peter and Bullent, Markus, Valerie, Stephan, the two Tim’s, Markus the camera guy, Benny and Markus ( who I think went broke at CH2), and many others who I can’t remember their names now. Also Axel, and Brian who I think got lucky with the “model”.

To the drivers and co driver that gave us memories we shall not forget. Roy Cats, Depak, Alex and Danielle in the Gallardo, Patrick and Robert in the Modena, Jerry and Jason in the Stradale, Jason and Melanie in the Porsche Turbo  I hope you liked the K and D CD), Kevin and his Brother in the Mac daddy black Dodge Ram Truck,  Jeff and Carrie in the Porsche Cab(sorry we could race both esprit’s, the Brits in the Open Lotus Ashley and Mark his pro photographer driver who showed me how to use my camera, Aloise in the Porsche Cab, The crazy Germans with costumes in the  Merc Suv, Richard and co-driver in the Black Gallardo, Raymond and Mary in the Yellow Diablo, Bill and Cindy in the Yellow Mucilago. Kalib in the Porsche with the funny story about having his head outside the Porsche at 140 and assessing damage after his tire blew with his Turban staying perfectly still on his head (see you in Vancouver), the Crazy Canadians from Vancouver in the Vettes, Peter in the Ferrari Modena that I got kicked off the track for racing Matt the race car driver, Bart and Holly in the 550 Maranello (thanks for dinner) and everyone else. I know I forgot a lot of people so please forgive me. I hope everyone tries to stay in touch and please contact me by email on this site for questions abut the FTP site and to the guys in the Viper who said the had the amazing footage of all 12 of us racing in a pack up the mountains on highway 99, please contact me as I need that footage for the video we are putting together.

Cheers,

Will get pictures up in a few days with video to follow. With two Cameras and one mounted we have great footage. Sorry about the technical difficulties on the site and people not getting the email updates after 3 days. Still not sure what went wrong.

Cheers,

Robb

Please from now on refer to Daily updates page for more info as this page was primarily used when having technical difficulties on the road.