Fast Cars & Superstars, Episode 4—Crash and Burn

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	Published: 06-14-2007
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Fast Cars & Superstars, Episode 4—Crash and Burn

Are you ready for another high octane episode of Fast Cars & Superstars? This time volleyball star Gabrielle Reece, former NFL coach Bill Cowher, and actor William Shatner will compete head to head in the time trial round. They will be tutored by Ryan Newman, driver of the #12 Alltel Dodge for Penske Racing. I will confess that Ryan Newman is one of my least favorite drivers in NASCAR, so I am not looking forward to a half an hour with him tonight.

Gabrielle gets to go first and during her practice round she talks about how cool it is to be able to drive as fast as she can legally. She is so tall that she has trouble getting into the car and runs a few fast practice laps on her own. As she’s following Ryan around the track, she cuts through the grass and spins out a few times. She comes to a stop before crashing into the wall, but it rattled her up.

On her timed run, her first lap is pretty slow at an average of 131 mph. She increases slightly to 134 mph. Her husband Laird Hamilton cheers her on, as he is already in the finals. She grabs the checkers at 2:00.69. That’s slow compared to previous nights. I just don’t think she’ll be able to move on with that time.

Bill Cowher gets to go next. During his practice, he got low in turn three and he hit a wall. He gets the typical Darlington Stripe (although he’s in Charlotte) and the Alltel car they were practicing in was unusable. He says he has to do better so he can lose the stigma of wrecking the car and his new nickname of “Crash”.

His first lap is decent and it ends up at 140 mph on average. That’s about 9 mph faster than Gabrielle. He stays down close to the white line and as far away from the wall as possible. The announcers mention he’s never driven a manual transmission before. His second lap is 139 mph and then he kicks it up and finishes at 1:55.11. He will move on to the second round.

William Shatner is up next and he knows he just has to beat Gabrielle’s time to move on. They show him getting nervous in practice when he has to run on his own after both Gabrielle and Bill crashed. He makes some weird “woooo” noises the entire time he goes around the track. Ryan confronts him about worrying about sliding. He tells him to gain confidence.

They start up for the timed laps. William’s car is constantly below the white line, which is a bad thing in racing. His first lap is at 134 mph, which is faster than Gabrielle. William is still staying pretty low instead of following Ryan’s line. His second lap is at 134 mph again. The official comes on the radio and warns him to stay above that white line. He goes below the line again, twice. He finishes at 1:59.56. Will he be disqualified for going below the line? The officials meet to talk about the situation. They do indeed disqualify William due to “safety” concerns. My guess is that they didn’t want Jewel to be the only woman next round, so they saved Gabrielle. If I were Krista Allen, I’d be mad. Afterall, she’s been faster than everyone except the two guys she competed against.

Next time: Kasey Kahne will be training John Elway, Laird Hamilton, Ty Murray, and Tony Hawk in round 2.

What do you think about the controversial elimination of William Shatner? Let me know at heather@realityshack.com.

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