A cross-country road race will roar across eastern Iowa in a few weeks. The Fireball Run Transcontinental Rally starts September 25th in Nevada and will traverse 3,500 miles over nine days, visiting Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois. It’ll arrive in Iowa on October 1st with stops in Fairfield and Cedar Rapids.
Rustin Lippincott, executive director of the Fairfield Convention and Visitors Bureau, understands why some compare this to the “Cannonball Run” movies from years ago. “They’re not going to be breaking the speed limits but I guarantee they’ll be turning some heads,” Lippincott says. “They’re going to be driving what we in Iowa don’t normally see on the road.”
The field will include dozens of shiny, high-powered vehicles. “There’ll be everything from Lamborghinis to Mustangs to KITT from Knight Rider,” Lippincott says. “It’s a challenging and scenic luxury road trip. We haven’t got a final number but we’re thinking over 100 cars.” During the Fairfield stop, the rally teams will be given clues to find various landmarks in town to earn points as part of the competition.
Lippincott says there’s also a humanitarian portion of the rally, as participants will be helping distribute literature and posters to help find missing children. “Each team is assigned a child from their home region,” Lippincott says. “They will disperse posters along their 3,500-mile route and the child’s picture will be affixed to the vehicle.” One of the rally’s participants is Marc Klaas (CLASS), founder of the Klaas Kids Foundation.
Klass’ 12-year-old daughter, Polly, was abducted from their California home and murdered in 1993. The Fireball Run is considered the single-largest active recovery charitable effort for missing kids and has aided in the recovery of 33 missing youth — from infants through children up to the age of 18. To learn more about the effort and the rally, visit: “www.fireballrun.com“.