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 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!

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.

The 1999 Bullrun 1000

The 1999 Bullrun 1000 saw several changes in how it ran...first off, the final qualifying was held online to pit the top 3 finishers of each division against each other in a head-to-head shootout. The second change was the fact that there were 2 divisions...supertouring as well as the V8 class.

The top Supertouring qualifiers were Sandy Robinson, Paul Hamilton, and Bryce Aston. Sandy took his team BMW M3 to pole position with a 1:48.097 to beat Paul's 1:48.595. Then the V8s took to the track. Jan Kohl pulled off the overall pole position in The Pits Performance Team (TPPT) 2 Lincoln LS with a 1:45.507 against David Hastie's 1:45.764. Sean Staples took 3rd on the grid with a 1:48 flat.

The final big change was that the weather turned sour, as well as the race ran into the darkness...but that came later. At the end of the "1st" segment, the Aussie Racing 1 BMW of David Hastie/Sandy Robinson was neck-and-neck with the SS Motorsports Chevy of Altemus/Blevins, the NASBRA Racing Honda of Gianini/Kulaif, and the Sim Cyberworld Motorsports Honda of Colgan/Kusters.

In the V8 supercar ranks, the 10th place qualifying Lincoln LS of The Pits Performance Team 1, driven by Goy Larsen/Stuart Brown, moved quickly through the field. Goy was now right on the rear bumper of the TPPT 2 Lincoln of Jan Kohl and Jim Kerekes. The 2nd place Aussie Racing 1 Holden Commodore of Sandy Robinson and Shane Wooden had some problems, but were still in the race.

Now the weather decided it was time to play tricks...for about 20 minutes the skies opened up, and flooded the track...drivers were forced to tip-toe around the track as the pavement grew slick and soaked. More than one driver found themselves in a 4 wheel slide attempting to cope with the dismal conditions...but at the end, patience and tenacity won out. Jim Kerekes got the TPPT 2 Lincoln off in the grass, luckily with out damaging the car...but lost the lead to the Robinson/Wooden Holden and the TPPT2 Lincoln now being driven by Stuart Brown

The Hastie/Robinson BMW was having a field day in the supertouring ranks, and pulled out to a commanding lead over the now 2nd place SS Motorsports Chevy of Altemus/Blevins. The 3rd place car was the IWCCCARS/TSR Racing Honda Accord of Paul Hamilton and Adrian Collier.

As the darkness grew, David Hastie and Sandy Robinson kept their lead, and made it even wider...now the trailing SS Motorsports car and IWCCCARS/TSR Racing Honda could only hope that David and Sandy made a mistake. But in the V8 field, things were just starting to heat up! The two TPPT Lincolns were neck and neck, after finally leaving the Aussie Racing 1 Holden behind.

As darkness finally fell over the mountains, the two TPPT Lincolns diced it out, headlights ablaze...but in the end, the TPPT 1 car of Goy Larsen and Stuart Brown took the win, Goy being the first time driver to take 2 wins at Bullrun! Their effort in the rain earned them a 118.449 avg speed for the race. The TPPT 2 car of Jan Kohl and Jim Kerekes took second, making it a Pits team sweep of the first 2 spots. The Aussie Racing 1 car did a valiant effort, coming in third.

In supertouring, it was definitely the Aussie Racing 1 team car of David Hastie/Sandy Robinson that had it their way...the BMW pulling avg speeds of 116.062 mph through the course. The Hamilton/Collier IWCCCARS/TSR Racing Honda came in second, while the Altemus/Blevins SS Motorsports Chevy managed a fine effort for third.

Download the 1999 Bullrun 1000 results, click here.

The 2000 Bullrun 1000

Due to problems getting NASCAR 3 and the race organized, there was no 2000 Bullrun 1000.

The 2001 Bullrun 1000 was a completely different affair. Due to the fact that it was ran online, there was no driver swapping in the pits. One driver drove the 86 lap first race, the second driver drove the 85 laps second race. Again, the teams cranked up to take their best shot for each 3 hour ordeal.

Race one started on Saturday, Nov 10th, with Sandy Robinson starting the #66 Commonwealth Motorsports Mustang Cobra, DJ Thibodeau in the Team@Target #19 Dodge Stratus, his teammate Don Smartt in the #91 Dodge Viper. Brendan Kaczmarek started in the #33 car, and Stuart Brown was driving the Nor'easter #70 Dodge Viper. Jan Kohl started The Pits Performance Team #55 Jaguar XK, and his teammate Scott Stockton started on the pole in the #76 Chevrolet Corvette.

The race got off to a rocky start, with several restarts due to incidents on the first lap. Finally, the field got under way, and Scott Stockton maintained the lead. Sandy Robinson spun into the fence on the first lap, incurring some damage.

During the first pit stop, Stuart Brown had some problems with the pit guys not putting on the tires correctly. The race was red flagged for a few laps to to get him squared away, and Sandy used the long delay to get his Mustang fixed. Then it was back to racing!

Both Scott and Jan had problems in the high speed esses right before All-or-Nothing corner on the same lap! They both backed it into the fence, one right behind the other. After suffering this damage, both cars ended up repairing bent fenders on the next stop. DJ and Jan traded positions a few times, both running door to door trying to gain the spot. Don had a some problems, but finished the race...while Brendan had some difficulties and ended up retiring with 69 laps to go.

This put Stu and Sandy into an intense battle for the lead. First Stu would lead for awhile, then pit, then Sandy would take over. With only a few laps left, Sandy caught Stu on somewhat ailing tires, and in the Sweeper, both of them made contact. Stu spun off the course, and Sandy ended up winning the race with a 16 second margin. On to race two...

Race two started without too much of a hitch, but it put a few people in the postion of having to make up some serious time. James Altemus looked to be in about the best shape, with some quick times and with only 16 seconds lost to the lead car, the #66 Mustang Cobra now driven by Alexandre Martin.

However, Goy Larsen was not about to throw in the towel. He pulled the #55 Jaguar XK out into a 12 second lead until he threw it into the fence. However that didn't daunt him, and he pressed on.

James and Goy swapped the lead when Goy pitted, but then Goy got the damage repaired and began to run some blindingly fast 1:44 and 1:45 laps to get the lead built back up.

However, it was not to be, as on lap 30 Goy retired with a broken connection...The Pits Performance Team #1 car was out. Then, the TPPT team 2 car, the #76 Corvette driven this day by Jim Kerekes, began a hard battle for second with David Henrie in the #19 Stratus.

The race wound down, and both Kerekes and Henrie had a few problems, but the #70 Stratus was rapidly disappearing into the distance. Finally, though, a caution came out with 8 laps to go, bunching up the field. That didn't stop James, as he pressed on to win race 2...and with the good run by Stuart the day before, put them into the winner's circle for the 2001 Bullrun 1000!

Download the 2001 Bullrun 1000 results, click here.