By GREG MARANO Staff Writer
Published in the Courier News on July 15, 2004
MOUNTAINSIDE -- Donald Fedoryk of Mountainside is a chiropractor,
but for 39 hours in 1983, he was a race car driver.
His course? About 2,800 miles of interstates running from
Manhattan to the California coast that involved barreling
down Interstate 78 into Pennsylvania, Interstate 70 into
St. Louis, Interstate 55 into Oklahoma, Interstate 40 and,
finally, Interstate 15 to the ocean.
Fedoryk will discuss the experience Friday when he goes
to Secaucus to appear on "Lester Holt Live" on
MSNBC. He will also talk about a documentary in production
about the race. Slated to appear with him, via a satellite
link from Los Angeles, is Cory Welles, producer and director
of the documentary, titled "32 Hours 7 Minutes."
More than 20 years ago, Fedoryk had his 1983 platinum
Porsche 944, his friend Arthur Bossert, a couple of sandwiches,
a radar detector, binoculars to look for cops and a goal:
to win.
"That was the last illegal race across the country,
where people raced for a trophy and not money," said
Fedoryk, who crossed the finish line 39 hours after he
started.
Fedoryk and Bossert stopped only for gas, bathroom breaks,
to switch drivers and have one meal at a diner in Amarillo,
Texas. "I think everyone has ... this romanticism
and this desire for speed and cars," Welles said Wednesday.
She said many people who have seen the 1981 Burt Reynolds
comedy movie "Cannonball Run," which spoofed
cross-country races, don't realize it was based on an actual
event.
"Nobody knows it happened. It just sort of fell into
obscurity," Welles said. "This movie will set
the record straight." Welles said the documentary,
scheduled to hit theaters in fall 2005, will focus on the
1983 race because it was the last of eight races, and a
record time of 32 hours and seven minutes was set that
year.
Welles said Car & Driver magazine writer Brock Yates
started the races in 1971 — then known as the Cannonball
Sea to Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash -- in part to protest
the then-proposed national 55 mph speed limit and demonstrate
that good drivers can drive safely at high speeds. Soon,
his readers wanted to join the race themselves.
"It was a lifetime dream," said Fedoryk, who
read an article about the race in 1976 and said he thought
it sounded like fun. When Fedoryk got a Porsche in 1983,
he said he decided it was the perfect time to do the race — while
the car was still under warranty.
Fedoryk said he and Bossert drove more than double the
55 mph speed limit — hitting speeds of up to 115
mph during some long, straight stretches out West — but
other drivers with souped-up engines made it to 150 mph.
"We did get pulled over once by a police car," Fedoryk
said. It was the middle of the night on 1-40 in Arizona.
The officer told Fedoryk and Bossert he had stopped a number
of other cars speeding that night, but decided not to give
Fedoryk a ticket.
"By the way, I'm the last officer on patrol until
the state border," the officer then
said, basically giving Fedoryk and Bossert the all-clear
signal for the remaining 50-75 miles to the California
state line.
"Everyone in our race got speeding tickets except
our vehicle," Fedoryk said. "We were lucky."
Greg Marano can be reached at (908) 707-3148 or gmarano@c-n.com.
At a glance; Donald Fedoryk and Cory
Welles are scheduled
to appear at 5:30 p.m. Friday on "Lester Holt Live," which
airs weekdays on MSNBC from 4 to 6 p.m. from the Courier
News website www.c-n.com
