Under The Hood

Frank151: Who is responsible for planning each rally?
Julie Brangstrup: My team and I do the logistical side of the event and all of the planning and permissions that we need—i.e. car displays, street closures, entertainment licenses, hotels, landing permissions, plane schedules—for the cars and the participants.

Forming a partnership and working with the governments and city officials is the most crucial part of the planning. Maximillion comes up with the ideas and routes for each year’s rally, and his team does the creative side of the event, i.e the parties, music, making films, designing apparel, and all artwork that’s needed for the event, including the presentations that I need for government meetings.

F151: How far in advance is each rally planned?
JB: Approximately a year in advance.

F151: How many times do you drive the route before the official rally begins? What do you do throughout the dry runs?
JB: I visit each city individually and will then drive the route from start to finish at least three times to time the distance and map out an exact route, as well as meet all relevant parties in each city, as Gumball 3000 works with over 100 different companies worldwide.


F151: On average, how many contestants participate in the rally?
JB: We aim to have 120 cars participating in each rally. However, when we do an intercontinental rally, like 2010’s route, we may have a few extra participants who do either the Euro leg or the US leg, so the number does vary a bit.

F151: Is each rally exactly 3,000 miles?
JB: Yes, give or take a few miles. Sometimes it’s more when drivers decide to get lost, which happens
a lot.

F151: Do you need special permissions or permits from cities and countries to take the rally across their borders? How do these negotiations work?
JB: Everywhere we go permission is needed, not only for closing streets for our displays, but also for simply driving through a country. We do this by making contact with the mayor’s office, governor’s...basically whatever we can do to get the best partnership and the best result for the event.

For me, this is the best part about planning the event—the political elements and learning about the many different ways each country deals with their politics and, sadly, their egos, etcetera. It’s an opportunity for me to explain what we are trying to achieve and to show them that we will work with them to ensure public safety and a successful event for all parties involved.

F151: How do you go about choosing and booking hotels at each stop?
JB: We research all five-star hotels and then shortlist the top five. I will then go and do a site inspection and choose which hotel is best for the event based on service, location, company, and where we can display our cars. They are always well-known hotels, as you can’t beat a hotel with a good reputation!


F151: Is it a concern that some of the cars entered in the rally will not be street legal?
JB: We do not enter any cars that are not street legal. All cars that enter the rally are processed and road worthy. 

F151: What happens if someone gets arrested or into legal trouble during the rally? Are they on their own?
JB: If someone is arrested, which obviously is very unattractive for me and our brand, then it’s up to them to sort themselves out. If they choose to speed, then that is their own decision, but they’re forewarned before they do the rally that if they speed or behave badly then they are on their own.

F151: When the rally goes intercontinental, what kind of planes are used to transport the cars?
JB: We use Antonov 225 or Boeing 747 cargo planes. We charter these planes privately to travel to any airport in the world. It gives us the possibility to take our participants on much more creative and amazing routes that they probably wouldn’t go to on their own.

It takes approximately 150 ground staff and ten hours to load these cars, and a lot of permission and paperwork, but it’s worth the hard work. This is a very important logistical element of the rally and takes a lot of planning. If something very small goes wrong it can result in the entire rally being delayed, and then the nightmare starts. But hey, everything in life is a challenge, and I quite like that!

F151: Is there anything else we should know about the work that goes into making each Gumball 3000 happen?
JB: Each rally employs roughly 100 staff at each stop to ensure that the event runs smoothly. We have 30 key crew and 15 full-time Gumball staff who travel with the drivers in “crew vehicles,” who are the driving force behind the execution of this event. Without them, the rally wouldn’t happen!

Besides that, the rest of what happens behind the scenes should stay behind the scenes!