:: GUMBALL 3000 BLOG ::

2002 was the year that Rob Dyrdek and Josh Kalis first entered the Gumball 3000 rally, as the race started in New York City and finished in Los Angeles. In 2003, the rally goes from San Francisco to Miami. In 2004, Dyrdek once again entered the Gumball, which had returned to Europe. Rob teamed up with Big Black to push a BMW X5 through Europe and into Northern Africa. In the 2005 rally, Rob Dyrdek drove for the third time the rally with some tuned Subaru WRX.  The famous skateboarder was interviewed about the Gumball rally. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Dyrdek for the great interview he gave. 

You first entered the Gumball in 2002, with Kalis. What sparked that? Why did you guys enter?  Well, entering the Gumball that year was getting wrapped into a full-scale, full-fledged Kalis fantasy. It was totally his idea. We somehow convinced [DC President Ken] Block that it was great PR for DC, and he somehow paid for it. I can’t quite remember how we pulled it off, but indeed we did. We used Josh’s M5. It was loaded to the tilt, and was pushing like 550 horses.

What were some of the wildest things that happened on that trip?
The Gumball is ridiculous to drive in—everyone is whipping down the freeway at 130, all spaced between each other in a perfect line. The cars make a perfect snake, and you’re snaking through traffic. On one occasion in Tennessee, Kalis was driving and I’m riding shotgun. We were in a 10-car convoy, and Josh and I were probably car number seven—surrounded by Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and the craziest cars. We come up over this hill, and there’re two cop cars on the freeway, blocking the freeway. As we come up on the roadblock, the cops start waving cars over, and the people in front of us start pulling over. One of the cops pulls off the freeway in front of the cars they’ve waved over, and I say, “Dude, it’s not like they’re going to chase us! Run it!” Kalis is all, “I don’t know, I don’t know!” I tell him, “Just blow through it!  

What’re they going to do, stop and leave these seven cars to come after us? Go! Go!” The cop was like, “Get over, get over!” And we just blew through the roadblock! That was one pretty interesting event. Someone told me a story that there were racers throwing money out of car windows to stop up traffic when the cops got behind ‘em. That was one of the rumors, but I didn’t see it. The amount of myths that go along with reality during the week of Gumball is ridiculous. 

What was the most outlandish car that year?
Price-wise, the Ferrari F50. Which is a million-dollar car that these guys were just beating to high heaven. I realized that year that you have to have a lot of money to beat apart a million-dollar car, of which there are only 399 on earth! The party ended that year at the Playboy Mansion. 

Did that live up to its hype?
The only thing cool that happened for me is the photo I got with Hugh Hefner. Hefner came out to greet everybody, and I charged up and caught a photo with him before he bounced. It’s that photo where the flash catches my watch just perfectly, and it’s just me and Hef, and my watch exploding with light. The end-all, be-all. That was the highlight of the Playboy mansion. 

You took a break from the rally in 2003 with the release of The DC Video. So what sparked you to hit it again in 2004 with Big Black?
We started talking to the Gumball organizers about DC actually sponsoring the event. We were able to put together a deal and get on the race.

You’d been on the Gumball rally before, so did you know what to expect?
I didn’t know what to expect in Europe. I don’t know what the hell’s going on in Europe. Not only was I unprepared, but I had gone to Spain to skate for two weeks before the race, and then I sprained my ankle. So I had been stir-crazy in a hotel for two weeks before I even got to the Gumball. We started off in Paris with no map and no navigation—nothing. It was a complete and total free-for-all. Race organizers told everyone to make sure to go around the French Alps. We didn’t realize that, and spun all the way to the top, and then all the way down. We left Paris on a sunny summer day, and by midnight were in eight-foot-deep snowdrifts on a giant mountain. It was so surreal. 
What were some of the highlights of that trip?
God, that trip was just balls-to-the-wall. We drove from Paris, down through Spain, and caught a ferry ride to Morocco. Morocco was just crazy. The police in Morocco escorted us the entire route. They made the average citizens get off the freeway so we could fly through everything! It was so psycho- Ferraris Enzo whipping by you at 180! It was just a free-for-all.

How did people react to you and Black together?  
They were just trying to figure it out, you know? They couldn’t figure it out. But they all loved Big Black. This is where I truly learned that when you’re a giant man, it’s the same as being a hot chick. The same way that dudes want to be down with you because you’re a hot chick, they want to be down with a giant man the same way—that way they can feel safe and protected by having the giant man-friend.

Was there a harsh learning curve to figure out how to drive in Europe? I’m going to tell you right now that L’etoile, the roundabout around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, is the most absolutely jacked thing made on earth. It’s a roundabout with about 15 lanes. If you’re trying to get off, it’s nearly impossible. At the race’s start, we made a right and a left turn and we were lost. Straight out the gate. It was completely ridiculous.

What were the parties like?
Of course we set it off with an ill night in Paris—and after that I set the whole race off with a vicious hangover that I didn’t recover from until the final day. I was really beaten to high heaven. There was a lot of driving, though. Some nights you couldn’t even go out. The one night in Marabella, we’d been in the car for 32 hours. It was so psycho. 
Explain the race’s set-up to me. You’d race from spot to spot, and there’d be a place to go out that night. For example, the King of Morocco hosted a party. It was pretty cool and crazy, with full snake-handling and belly-dancers—the whole Moroccan vibe. Let me tell you something about Morocco—they park their donkeys on the freeway. Most people travel by donkey, and when you drive down the freeway, it’s donkey after donkey after donkey. Donkeys for days.

What was the highlight of that trip? 
My favourite moment was when the cops in Spain were pulling everybody over with a roadblock. We covered up the Gumball stickers on the side of the van that faced the cops with tape we bought at a gas station. We went through the roadblock without the cops even noticing us. It was such a “Cannonball Run” moment! I was so nervous because there were 50 cars pulled over, and as we pulled through we all went, “Yeargggghhh!” We went crazy, we were so psyched. We just stealthed through there.

What are you looking forward to this year? The race starts in London in a month. I’m just psyched to have an ill car to do it in, and be a part of this whole team vibe. Plus we get to set it off with some juice, because they’re going to premiere the Gumball film, and Black and I pretty much star in the film. The film’s rock-solid, and it’s going to be real funny.

Are you planning to take out Ken and Damon?
You’re the Gumball vet at this point. I can’t see them hanging! Do you really want to pass a Ferrari in the dirt doing 120? I just don’t think so. When you’re young and dangerous, that’s when you handle that type of stuff ? but we’ll see. Block’s been racing cars for a long time, and Damon’s been known to get a little crazy, too. So we’ll see.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 2nd, 2006 at 11:28 am and is filed under Generall, Gumball Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.