First Oren Sands set the World Record for most time spent driving around a single roundabout.
Next Sands drove every roundabout in Carmel in an attempt to set the record for most roundabouts driven through in a single day.
Now, Carmel resident Dave Dugan has set a third record: most laps around a single roundabout.
Dugan
Friday morning Dugan drove 717 laps in 3 hours and 11 minutes around the Jackson Circle-Horseferry roundabout in Carmel’s Village of WestClay while raising funds to support Cancer Support Community’s free programs and services.
According to Dugan, who has been a professional comedian for 35 years, Cancer Support Community provides support services for cancer patients and their families.
“This fundraiser has been a long time in the making,” Dugan told The Reporter. “It is something I’ve wanted to do for a while and we kicked it into a higher gear when in late summer.”
Like so many of us, Dugan has been affected by losing loved ones and friends to cancer. He mother passed away from cancer a few years ago. Then he lost several close family members in a short span of time and a good friend this past summer.
“This group [Cancer Support Community] has a big annual fundraiser show every April and they asked me to host that last year,” Dugan said. “It was a little different for me. I usually do about 45 minutes of comedy, but this was some comedy while being a host/MC, but also facilitating the serious part of the fundraiser. After meeting their director, I thought this was the perfect fit for the fundraiser I was going to put together.”
Regarding turning left for hours on end, Dugan said, “I like to drive and I’ve had some really long road trips over the years. I’m hoping that some of that love of driving and being used to driving for a long time will come into play a little bit. But this will be a new adventure.”
When asked about the effects of three hours of inertia, Dugan said, “I had no problems at all while driving other than a stiff neck but I do notice that I seem to lean to the left now.”
There was no World Record for most laps around a single roundabout before Friday. Technically Dugan set a World Record by driving the first lap, then broke that record over and over for hours.
“There is no record for most laps,” Dugan said. “The magical number 500 is in my mind. So, I’m hoping to get 500 and depending on how that feel, maybe more. I think I could do 500 in three hours.”
He did get more, making 717 total laps in 3 hours and 11 minutes. That is an average of 3.75 laps per minute.
DeVoe Chevrolet donated the vehicle for Dugan’s record-setting drive.
“My own car had to have new tires way before it should have,” Dugan explained. “They asked, ‘Do you live in Carmel?’ When I say yes, they said, ‘Oh, we see people from Carmel all the time.’ Apparently, the roundabouts make the tires and tread wear down a lot quicker. My first request was to get a rental car or a donated vehicle because I don’t think I’m ready to buy another set of tires yet.”
Dave wanted to give special thanks to Well Done Marketing in Indianapolis for all the time and effort they have been putting into the project, including shooting a video to be used at an April fundraiser.
If you want to contribute to the cancer support fundraiser, go to cancersupportindy.org/dave-dugan