as Featured Guests on Cruisin’ With The Monkey 2017Top Sports Car and Drag Racing Stars Set Sail Through The Caribbean With Gas Monkey Garage’s Richard Rawlings, March 19 – 26, 2017
A solid lineup of winning race car drivers will bring some horsepower to the high seas when they join Gas Monkey Garage’s Richard Rawlings for Cruisin’ With The Monkey, a week-long Caribbean cruise that sets sail March 19 – 26, 2017 from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.A classic car enthusiast and the founder of Gas Monkey Garage, Rawlings will be at the helm of this adventure and he is bringing some of his monkeys and favorite racing buddies along for the ocean-going ride. Gas Monkey Garage and race fans alike can get in on the action and join the week-long party with a variety of cabin levels available for the perfect passage on this high-octane adventure at sea. Learn more at www.CruisinWithTheMonkey.com. Cruisin’ With The Monkey’s course for this floating party is throughout the Western Caribbean aboard Holland America Line’s luxury liner Nieuw Amsterdam.After launching from Ft. Lauderdale the day after the 2017 running of the legendary 12 Hours of Sebring, ports of call along the way for the Nieuw Amsterdam include Half Moon Cay to the Cayman Islands and Cozumel to Key West. Rawlings and all aboard will visit these exotic island destinations for some on-land site seeing and downshifting into relaxation on the world’s prettiest beaches. The motorsports personalities joining the party include seven internationally recognized sports car racing drivers, an all-American drag racer from Texas and a “Big Brain” engineer type that has built some bad race cars that blow even Rawlings away.The sports car drivers include Americans “Big Texas” Ben Keating and “Pure Michigan” Marc Miller, top Dutch talent Jeroen Bleekemolen, Belgian hot shoe Marc Goossens, Danish driving dynamo Christina Nielsen and England’s leading lady of motor racing, Katherine Legge.The quarter-mile contingent will be represented by Pro Stock stud Alex Laughlin, another race-track tamer from Texas who drives the Gas Monkey Garage Camaro in one of the NHRA’s most competitive classes. Laughlin broke through just this past weekend for his first career final round appearance and victory at the NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway Motorsports Park near St. Louis.
Keating, Bleekemolen, Miller and Goossens have all raced Gas Monkey supported race cars around the world, including Keating’s ViperExchange.com No. 33 big-bore V10 Dodge Viper GT3-R that won on the streets of Detroit in June.Keating, Bleekemolen and Goossens also teamed up in a bat-mobile looking Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) race car this past June for a go in the grueling 24 Hours of Le Mans sports car race.In addition to the Viper, Miller races the popular “Darth Cayman” in the IMSA Continental Tire sports car series, scoring a victory in the Porsche just last month at VIRginia International Raceway (VIR).Nielsen is on the verge of making history this weekend in the 10-hour Petit Le Mans sports car race at Road Atlanta where she can become the first woman to win a major full-season championship in North American professional sports car competition. With endurance-race victories already this year at Sebring and Watkins Glen, Nielsen can edge Keating’s second-place Viper team and the rest of the competition for the crown by driving at least three hours in her Ferrari in the season-ending IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event.Legge has also made some racing history for the ladies in the U.S. as the first woman to win a major open-wheel race in North America, which she did with a Toyota Atlantic Championship victory on the streets of Long Beach in 2005. Legge currently races the futuristic Panoz Delta Wing Prototype in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship.The brain power on the motorsports talent side will be well represented by designer, constructor, engineering and all around racing wizard Bill Riley. Along with his legendary father, Bob Riley, a member of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, Riley designed and built Keating’s Viper GT3-R. The Viper is just one of dozens of winning designs the Riley clan has built over the decades, including Indianapolis 500, Rolex 24 At Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring race winners.Cruisin’ With The Monkey guests can mingle with all of these motorsports notables and more for seven days aboard one of the finest vessels currently sailing. Between pit stops at port, the Nieuw Amsterdam offers Cruisin’ With The Monkey guests an array of entertainment, recreation and world-class dining options. There’s even a car giveaway at the end of this Ocean-going ride.
Rawlings and Keating, principal of ViperExchange.com – the largest Viper retailer in the world – put together this seven-day adventure at sea that that is open only to first 2,000 cruisers who get in on the action. Learn more and book now at www.CruisinWithTheMonkey.com.Keating, Bleekemolen, Miller, Goossens, Nielsen and Legge will all be racing in Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta this Saturday, October 1. The season-ending IMSA WeatherTech race is scheduled to go green at 11:10 a.m. EDT. Broadcast coverage begins on FOX Sports 1 (@FS1) at 11 a.m. EDT to kickoff continuous live coverage of the 10-hour race throughout the day on @FS1, FOX Sports 2 and IMSA.tv.About Cruisin’ With The Monkey: Cruisin’ With The Monkey, March 19 – 26, 2017, is a trip throughout the Western Caribbean with Richard Rawlings, and some of his Monkeys from Gas Monkey Garage, aboard Holland America’s luxurious Nieuw Amsterdam. Setting sail from Fort Lauderdale the day after the 2017 running of the 12 Hours of Sebring, the high-seas adventure will also have winning ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper GT3-R competitors Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Marc Miller, Team Director Bill Riley and a few of their racing teammates and colleagues onboard for the week-long party at sea. Check out the full list of professional motorsports personalities already booked for the cruise at www.CruisinWithTheMonkey.com/motorsports and learn more and reserve your spot now at www.CruisinWithTheMonkey.com. About Gas Monkey Garage: In 2002, Richard Rawlings launched Gas Monkey Garage. The Garage created and transported automobiles for customers worldwide. In September 2013, Rawlings started Gas Monkey Bar N' Grill in Northwest Dallas with a second location at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport that opened in March 2014. In October 2014, Gas Monkey Live, a venue dedicated predominantly to live music, was opened. In 2016, Gas Monkey Garage will partner in three motorsports efforts with the ViperExchange.com Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper GT3-R in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Gas Monkey Garage Special in the 100th Indy 500 and the Laughlin Motorsports Pro Stock in the NHRA Mello Yello Series.About ViperExchange.com: ViperExchange.com is the largest Dodge Viper and exotic cars licensed dealer located just Northwest of Houston, Texas. With over 100 Dodge Vipers typically for sale and more arriving daily for sale, ViperExchange.com has combined the largest inventory in the world of new and pre-owned Dodge Vipers. ViperExchange.com also offers the best prices and discounts. Special orders, specific model searches and financing options are also available. For more information, visit ViperExchange.com directly, Twitter @ViperExchange and Facebook at Facebook.com/Viper-Exchange.
