Current News

The 2nd annual running of the Bullrun 1000 is upon us! If you're a driver or team, and wish to register to get into this grueling race of all races, please go to the signup page to reserve your spot. We are proud to welcome The Sim Gallery as the Bullrun 1000 sponsor.

17 Sep -Tim Howell will be running some practice rounds on NROS, at Bullrun, on Saturday, Sept. 19th at 1pm PST (3pm CST). Everyone who wants to show up, Tim said the password (if he has one) will be "TPTCC". His TEN name is "thowe".

17 Sep -Bruce Kennewell has emailed me and said he unfortunately won't have the time to come to Bullrun and defend his group B win last year...so it's all up for grabs, with the reigning champ bowing out!

Stuart Brown has dedicated some of his time doing something besides sim racing and going to the pub! ;] You can check out his team strategy page at the Strategy page...necessary reading for any serious team. As well, don't forget to check out Sealsoft Works for great NASCAR software such as Telemetry and Qord (the qualifying program we'll be using for Bullrun).

Want to have all the great graphics for the Bullrun 1000? Here's a graphics kit that places Bullrun 1000 logos and The Pits Performance Team truck in Bullrun.

Word has it that Kevin Schofield and his brother Keith will be returning to defend their Group A winner's status, no news yet of whether Bruce and Drew Kennewell will be returning to defend their Group B win.

Teammates Wanted

  • Alexander Robinson - Group A or B (Audi preference)
  • Bill Tillman - Group ?
  • Sean Staples - Group A

    Downloads

  • Qord (required, qualifying program for Bullrun)
  • Truck patch (not required, changes graphics will Bullrun 1000 logos)
  • 1:43.5 replay (not required)

    History

    Bullrun Raceway...3.66 miles of twisting road surface in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, situated near Megville, Colorado. It's not often that you see BMWs, Audis, Mercedes, Saabs, Hondas, Fords, and other such cars in such a beautiful location, but you can here. And beautiful could be the word to describe these brightly painted 2 litre rockets, all hugging the corners with tires squealing and engines screaming. The Bullrun 1000...nothing beautiful about that name for racers...1000 kilometers of one of the most torturous racetracks ever. It's grueling, and mind-numbing, and often disasterous when one car finds itself at the wrong place at the wrong time. This is the race of all races, the Magnum Opus of any sim drivers' resume...to say that they survived to win the Bullrun 1000. You cannot relent, you cannot lose concentration for one second or a destroyed racecar will remind you that the Bull has horns...

    Sean Staples can be blamed for this difficult endeavor for racers, one day in 1997 Sean came up with the idea of running a race similar to the prestigous Bathurst 1000 for SuperTouring Cars, held in Australia. So the idea grew wings, and flew.

    The 1997 Bullrun 1000

    The inaugural race was held in November 1997, spread out over several weeks. Since most sim racers cannot pair up with their teammates physically in many cases, it had to be run where a driver could run his 'leg' (the time that a driver spends behind the wheel until he comes in to allow his teammate to race) and then send the results in to be verified, and sent out to the teammates to run their leg. It was also one of the first simulator races that used Qord, a program that calculates the qualifying order, then creates a 'saved' race that regroups the drivers based on their speed. That way, the sim drivers actually qualified against each other, offline!

    Sixteen teams showed up to contest the event, for a total of 35 drivers. Five teams were in Group B, and the rest were in group A. Kevin Schofield showed the way with the overall pole for the race with a 1:39.885...a blistering speed around this track, to say the least. Then, the race began...

    The end of segment one showed Kevin in the KMK Dodge Stratus to be completely in control of the event thus far, tearing up the track with a 1:45.3 average speed. Bruce Kennewell, in the BlackAdder Racing BMW, was not too far behind, at the lead of Group B with a 1:50 average lap of Bullrun. However, the first segment also saw the demise of several favorites, Jan Kohl's and Jim Getzen's Pits Performance Team/MotorsportsNet Saab 900 had contact with Patrick Watts on All-or-Nothing Corner, and ended up with nothing by lap 26! Jan ended up doing a 600 ft slide down the frontstretch, and impacted the knife edge of pit wall, effectively ending their race. The Blind Faith ride of Paul Hamilton and Rob Gill also were out by lap 42.

    Segment two showed Kevin and brother Keith Schofield increasing their lead over the rest of the pack, on an average of four and one-half seconds a lap! Talk about moving...Bruce and brother Drew Kennewell were hotly pursued by the Pigsy Racing team of Paul Johns and Robert Yates. However, Bullrun claimed some more victims when Lars Eriksson piled the Lip Service Racing 1 Volvo into the fence at lap 69. Shane Wooden of Aussie Racing 2 had problems with his engine on lap 85, and took down time changing parts.

    Segment three showed the KMK Dodge to be well ahead of the field, still lapping the track at an average of 1:48! The BlackAdder Racing BMW was still pulling ahead of Group B, but only by a little, Pigsy Racing was still hot on their heels...

    Finally, the finish! The KMK Dodge wheeled into the overall victory, having run the entire race with an average speed of 122 mph! The next placed car came in one lap down, that was the Kaiowas Motorsports 1 car of Jeff Haas and Greg Alferov. The Group B finish was wrapped up by the Blackadder team, their car ran the race with a 119 mph average!

    To see the overall 1997 Bullrun 1000 standings, click here.

    Sponsored by