Day 1 in Scottsdale Prepping for the 2009 Brighton Rally

After a very long day of travel (3 hours fly time, 7 hours airport time), we arrived late last night in Scottsdale. Our hosts, Shane and Karen from Brighton Motorsport, were very patient with our ever changing travel plans and were good enough to pick us up, even at 11:30pm. Thank you guys!

Today we went with Shane to pick up their 1972 Ferrari 365GTC/4. It has been getting the once over by their Ferrari specialist to make sure it’s ready for the rally on Sunday. It’s getting a little special attention because it’s being guest driven by none other than two time Indy 500 champion, Arie Luyendyk (wikipedia entry)! Here is a picture when we picked it up:

Then we were on to Brighton Motorsports. I followed Shane in his Tahoe while he gave the 365 it’s first drive in some time. It was purchased earlier this year, but he confesses it hasn’t been driven as much as he would’ve liked. Not to worry, he as he made up for lost time and treated us to some wonderful music from that big V12 motor. A short while later, he handed us the keys to give it some more test time. It runs fantastic and is very easy to drive once out of congestion. Here is a picture of me with a huge grin on my face behind the wheel:

And here is a short video of our time behind the wheel:

We got back home just in time for Shana to catch the sunset as I downloaded images. Check this out:

As you can tell, we’re having an awesome time! If you’d like to follow our updates on the Brighton Rally, you can become a fan of the Official Brighton Facebook page or follow our Twitter page.

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