BY TEHANI SCHNEIDER • DAILY RECORD

Behind the wheel of a speeding BMW, Dave Maher glimpsed the Arch in St. Louis around daybreak and felt a rush of adrenaline as he and his driving partner inched closer to their goal.

“(Seeing it) kind of gave you a little sense of life, and the sun was coming up,” recalled Maher, 33, of New York City. “We were pushing hard the whole night.”

In a flash, the famed landmark was gone as the BMW whizzed west toward its destination. Maher and his partner, renowned rally race driver Alex Roy, were on their way in October 2006 to breaking the transcontinental driving record from New York City to Los Angeles.

It was a moment that Roy, 36, and Maher, a 1993 graduate of Delbarton School in Morris Township, recounted for members and guests of the Entrepreneurs Organization of New Jersey at the Vulcan Motor Club in Chester Thursday night.

Susan DeJong, director of special events for the club, said Roy and Maher spoke for nearly two hours and showed clips from their trips during the recruiting event for the Entrepreneurs Organization. More than 75 business entrepreneurs with a combined revenue of $480 million belong to the EO chapter.

The Vulcan Motor Club, which showcases exotic vehicles such as the Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder and Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren, put the blue 2000 BMW M5 that Roy and Maher drove on display for the night.

“They shared how they put the event together and planned it from a business standpoint,” DeJong said. “They were very engaging.”

For Maher, originally of Bedminster, the cross-country triumph eclipsed the duo’s first run together when they won the Spirit of the Gumball Trophy in the Gumball 3000 in 2003.

The Gumball 3000 is an annual 3,000-mile international rally that takes place on public roads and draws approximately 100 racers from across the world each year.

When Roy and Maher won the trophy together, the race was held in the United States and the two drove from San Francisco to Miami in six days. They drove between six and 12 hours, up to 400 to 900 miles, each day, Maher said before Thursday’s talk at the club.

Breaking the transcontinental record, however, involved more serious endurance, he said. Three years after their first and only run together, the duo took the same BMW and fully equipped it for the grueling run.

After leaving New York City, the duo reached Santa Monica Pier in 31 hours and 4 minutes, breaking the legendary Cannonball Run record of 32 hours and 7 minutes set in 1983.

The brakes were upgraded; more electronic scanning devices, as well as GPS units and night vision cameras, were installed; and the fuel tank replaced with a larger one, giving the BMW a range of 600 miles per tank.

They stuck mostly to interstate highways and admit speeding all the way — that’s why their drive was conducted in secret and was not discussed until long afterward.

Before they departed from downtown Manhattan on Columbus Day weekend, they had mapped out their course, with a plan to reach Los Angeles when traffic would be lightest on that city’s notoriously congested freeways–around 2 a.m. on Monday.

Together, their driving speed averaged over 90 mph for the run — 2,800 miles. They stopped only five times and only for five minutes each time, he said.

“It wasn’t just get in the car and go. There were years of planning that went into this,” said Maher, who works in banking and races Porsches in his spare time.

“Alex had attempted this once, one reconnaissance run, which he achieved in just under 35 hours, and thought he could break the record,” Maher said. “He tried it again with another friend of his and his car broke down in Oklahoma.”

Roy, who had gone on to overseas success with the Gumball rally after his initial win with Maher, approached his friend. He asked him to participate in breaking the record just weeks before the drive.

Before he would go into any detail about the race, Roy had Maher sign a nondisclosure agreement so the race was conducted in secrecy.

“If anyone found out about it, they could tip off the police and sabotage the whole trip,” Maher said.

Although the duo had only one close call, with state police in Oklahoma, they were never caught speeding. Any traffic violations that did occur during the race went largely unnoticed and the statute of limitations for those violations now has expired, he said.

The agreements were also signed since Roy was developing both a book about the mission and participating in a documentary in progress, Maher said.

Roy’s book, “The Driver: My Dangerous Pursuit of Speed and Truth in the Outlaw Racing World,” was published by Harper Collins a year after their successful feat.

The 100-minute documentary, “32 Hours, 7 Minutes” splices in footage from the previous record-breaking run in 1983, but also focuses on Maher and Roy’s mission to beat the record. Filmmaker Cory Welles sat in the back seat of the BMW during the race manning several cameras.

Maher said Roy had sentimental reasons to do the film after his father, who had desired to do the Cannonball Run, passed away.

Roy learned the secrets of the original drivers and added a new plotline to Welles’ story, Maher said. Welles has since submitted the film to both the Sundance and Slamdance independent film festivals.

Although Maher, who developed a passion for cars as a boy from his own father, Jerry, prefers track racing to road rallies, his success with Roy is a feat he’ll always cherish.

“We’re both very different people, but we have one major thing in common,” he said. “And we have a tremendous bond in that we share this amazing experience that nobody can take away from us.”

Reposted from http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20081116/COMMUNITIES10/811160348/1005/NEWS01

Tehani Schneider can be reached at (973) 428-6631 or tschneider@gannett.com.