Route of the Cannonball run?

[bugo]

Not the cheeseball movie, but the actual route that was taken in an attempt to cross the country as fast as possible.  Anyone know?

[getemngo]

That's a good question, because everything I've read says there's no official route, but some of the controversy surrounding the newest record is that "they didn't follow the route." 

If you want to be picky about it, only the 1971, 1972, 1975, and 1979 races were sanctioned by founder Brock Yates, so that'd be the place I would look first.

[english si]

Isn't there a lack of official route so as to not alert law enforcement?

[1995hoo]

Car and Driver re-ran an old article about it a few years ago and the article expressly noted the only rule was that whoever made it to the destination first was the winner. No rules on what route you took. The article, which was from sometime in the early 1970s, noted there was some debate about the best route and that while the competitors headed across Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona on I-40, there was discussion over whether a "northern route" through Colorado and Utah to Nevada might work better so as to take advantage of Nevada having no speed limits. On the other hand, weather in the mountains was a possible concern.

Yates mentioned using a road he called the "Ash Fork Cutoff"; I believe he was referring to Arizona Route 89. The goal was to cut from I-40 down to I-10.

The only rule was this: "All competitors will drive any vehicle of their choosing, over any route, at any speed they judge practical, between the starting point and destination. The competitor finishing with the lowest elapsed time is the winner."


Edited to add: I did a Google search and found some of the same discussion in Yates's book. Maybe the article was an excerpt, or maybe he used the article when he wrote the book. He said that in 1971, seven of the eight teams used basically the same route: I-78 to the Pennsylvania Turnpike/I-70/I-40 combination via Columbus, St. Louis, Oklahoma City, and Flagstaff. One team used a different route: Route 46 in New Jersey to I-80 across Pennsylvania, then southwest across Ohio to Columbus, and later using the Ask Fork Cutoff via Routes 89, 71, and 60 from west of Flagstaff to I-10. That route was 35 miles longer than the other teams', but it allowed higher speeds and that team won. But back then the Interstate system was still under construction.

Link to the book excerpt: http://books.google.com/books?id=bVO1N3N_UWkC&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=cannonball+northern+route&source=bl&ots=UMQUHXl98D&sig=kgoy_r6fi9-ztwn1hjz4KGCMby0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=r5J-UuawLPbK4APJqoDQAg&ved=0CHoQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=cannonball%20northern%20route&f=false