Gumball rally zips through Balkans
Celebrities and socialites taking part in the Gumball Rally 3000 received a boisterous welcome in Belgrade today as they passed through the Balkans on their multi-continent itinerary.
Motocross racer Carey Hart, the husband of singer Pink, waved to the crowd of more than 5,000 people gathered in and around Belgrade City Hall, where authorities organised a reception for some 240 participants of the high-speed dash.
“It’s amazing, I’m really excited about this journey,” Hart said amid roaring Porsches, Ferraris, a gullwing Mercedes and dozens of other souped-up sports cars.
The annual race kicked off on Sunday in London following a massive party, crossed through the tunnel to France, then Belgium and Austria, cheered by fans at several stops.
Today, participants in 120 cars crossed from Hungary into Serbia where the vehicles were scheduled to board a chartered cargo plane that will take them to Thailand for the next, Asian leg of the race.
“It’s been great, really fantastic,” said Deepak Jain, a Washington, DC-based entrepreneur who drove in a Porsche 911.
The rally was named after a 1970s road race – in which the prize was a gumball machine – that inspired the movies Gumball Rally and Cannonball Run. It has drawn criticism as some participants have been involved in accidents or arrested for speeding in recent years.
This year, however, there have been only a few minor accidents in central Europe, and the police in Serbia apparently turned a blind eye to the convoy’s high speed, waving to participants rather than issuing tickets, Jain said.
However, a Rolls Royce Phantom driven by Ezra Chapman from Great Britain veered off the road on the stretch between the Hungarian border and the Serbian capital. No one was injured in the accident, but the vehicle was badly damaged, a police report said.
As the rally drove through Belgrade toward the airport to board a waiting aircraft, thousands more lined the streets cheering, waving and gawking at the sleek sedans and roadsters.
After Asia, the vehicles and the drivers are to be flown to the United States for two final days of the race, May 6-7, in California, capped with a party at Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles.
