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!

Download the 1997 Bullrun 1000 results, click here.

The 1998 Bullrun 1000

After the first full TPTCC schedule, drivers found themselves back in Megville again for the second running of the Bull Run 1000. Leading the field were returning champions, KMK Motorsports with Kevin Schofield landing the #1 Motorola Saab on Group A pole. Fresh off a 1998 team championship, Lip Service Racing 1 driver Stuart Brown followed in a close second with the second Pits Performance Team Saab, qualified by Goy Larsen, rounding out the top 3. In Group B, Joris van der Westen set the pole time for Pure Insanity Racing, followed by Paul Hamilton in the Chapaz Racing 2 Peugeot and David Hastie in the Aussie Racing 3 BMW.

The end of segment one found Stuart Brown leading the way for LSR1 with Goy Larsen not far behind in his TPPT Saab. Millenium Racing was the surprise leader in Group B with Sandy Robinson sneaking the team's Audi into third place overall, first in class.

LSR1 extended it's lead through segment two, with Dimitry Nekyrukov taking over the car. Gilles Benoit, now driving for TPPT2 kept the car on pace in second place, and Jim Getzen had now brought the second TPPT Saab into third place. Millenium continued to lead Group B with David Thibodeu now behind the wheel. The battle was fierce behind them, with Aussie Racing 4 in second and the LSR2 Alfa Romeo moving up into third place.

Segment three saw quite a shakeup at the top of the standings, gone was the LSR1 Honda, out with terminal problems. TPPT2 promptly took it's place at the top with TPPT1 and a hard charging Aussie Racing 1 battling for second place. In Group B, Millenium was still up front, but now swapping the lead in an exciting battle with Pure Insanity Racing.

As the checkered fell to complete the race it was the TPPT2 Saab driven by Goy Larsen and Gilles Benoit that crossed the line first. Tim Howell and Jason Burmeister in the Aussie Racing 1 BMW won the battle for second with the TPPT1 Saab driven by Jan Kohl and Jim Getzen rounding out the Group A podium.

Pure Insanity Racing, with drivers Jason Burmeister and Joris van der Westen took honours in Group B followed by the Diabolic Racing Chevrolet, with drivers Lance Snyder, James Altemus and Bill Tillman. Millenium Racing drivers, Sandy Robinson and David Thibodeau rounded out the Group B podium.

Download the 1998 Bullrun 1000 results, click here.

Another year running with the bulls... Good luck in '99!

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