We are at the end of Day 7 of the Alcan Winter Rally. We spent days five and six testing the endurance of ourselves and our vehicles by driving North from Dawson City 500 miles to Inuvik. After turning North at the junction onto the Dempster Highway it is about 230 miles of completely uninhabited snow covered valleys, hills and mountains until you reach Eagle Plains, a lone self-sufficient outpost that provides the only gas on this road. Leaving Eagle Plains going North it's another 250 miles to reach Inuvik. You don't want trouble on that road.
Trouble struck TeamD car #11, Jim Hogan and Dan Comden had their Subaru WRX alternator fail only 13 miles up the road. Eric and Steve in the BMW and Rob and Nick in the Mazda 323 escorted the WRX back to town where it was left while Jim and Dan were hauled North as passengers. We could not leave them to miss the most adventurous part of the trip. They got to see the scenery but not getting their vehicle to Inuvik cost them a 200 point penalty.
The next adventure was the round trip drive up the Mackenzie River and across the Arctic Ocean to Tuktoyaktuk, 112 miles each way. Only 26 miles into that drive Rob and Nick hit a large crack in the ice and popped both tires on the right side. Eric and Steve helped them change the tire and sent them back to town. The missed out on reaching Tuktoyaktuk but were able to find replacement tires in Inuvik. They received a 10 point penalty for not
reaching the end of this drive. Jim and Dan also got nicked 10 points for the Tuk trip too.
Happily the bad luck did not strike Eric and Steve and they were able to get all the way upthe road to Inuvik and to Tuktoyaktuk.
car #13 made it all the way to Tuktoyaktuk and unfortunately on the way back down the Dempster Highway accidentally rolled off the road onto their roof when an oncoming semi-truck passed them. With the aid of the sweep truck they got back on the road but being upside down upset the engine and within a short time it completely seized up. They left their broken MitsubishiMontero in Carmacks, Yukon. A friendly person in the town said they could leave it until spring.
R. Dale Kraushaar of car number two, has been fighting the flu for a few days. He finally got in to see a doctor in Whitehorse after coming back down from Inuvik. The doctor reportedly ordered him to bed and so R. Dale sent his team on while he will spend the next three or four days recovering at the High Country Inn in Whitehorse.
Other than penalties for not reaching the Northern towns there were no scored TSD sections on days five or six. The two days without timed sections gave the scoring committee time to catch up and finalize scores for the first four days of the rally. Today, Day 7 we had one timed TSD section and that is reflected in the scores below.
1. Car #1 Ahearns, Schneider, Webb with 31.6 points
2. Car #3 Carlson, Joy, Kraushaar with 35 points
3. Car #4 Eklund, Rounds, Reid, 61.2 points
4. Car #10 Wallace, Hightower, Carozza, 63.3 points
5. Car #7 Horst, Willey with 67.4 points
6. Car #2 Kraushaar, Engstrom, Richardson, 69.7 points
7. Car #8 Bornhop, Kott, 180 points
8. Car #11 Hogan, Comden with 367.1 points
9. Car #6 Dunn, Marcuse, 419.5 points
10. Car #12 Miller, Duchene, Wood with 516 points
11. Car #9 Wright, Fuhrman, 662 points
12. Car #16 Brown, Morris, 677.1 points
13. Car #14 Weaver, Weaver, 913.3 points
14. Car #5 Elder, Elder, 938 points
15. Car #13 Gilland, Boyd with 982 points
16. Car #15 von Richthofen, Touring Class
We've been at hotels with only a single phone for the last few days. More serious web updates Wednesday night.
This morning Jim and I piled into the red Sweep truck for the trip back to Dawson City. They would drop us and the alternator loaned by the Challenge Driving Subaru team to see if we could get our act back on the road. Ohio and Ken did a great job piloting the big ol' Dodge through the snow, ruts and morning flat light. A diversion near the end of the road -- we rounded a corner to find car #13, Paul and Paul's Mitsubishi Montero on its side in the right hand ditch. We quickly piled out of the car to find navigator Paul's head pop out of the right hand door.
They were unharmed and had wisely taken time to don their cold weather gear and figure out how to unstrap without landing on each other before exiting the vehicle. A couple of tugs with Ohio's pickup and they were going again. Seemingly unharmed except for a dented driver's door, the hardy Montero unfortunately gave up its automotive ghost another 250 miles down the road -- an oil problem, sounded like.. Looks like they will finish out the rally riding with a sweep vehicle. Great competitors, the both of them and we're quite sorry to see them unable to drive to the finish.
But I get ahead of the story, don't I? Ohio and Ken dropped us in Dawson City at the same shop that helped the BMW team switch tie rods on their cars two days ago. Though the loaned alternator had a dented pulley, the great folks at Northern Superior Mechanical had us charging normally and bolting down the highway, only a couple of hours behind the rest of the rally. This is a long day for most of the teams -- close to 700 miles, I think, but we're a bit fresher than most because we didn't have to pilot the first 230 mile stretch out of Eagle Plains. When I say "fresh" I mean only our level of fatigue. After three days in the same clothing, there's no way I can use that word in any other sense. As I type this, we are 11 miles from the one and only DIY TSD for the day. I'll end this for now and hopefully get a chance to post later tonight in Destruction Bay.
Oh -- about car #12 (the third BMW). When we were getting the alternator replaced/fixed in Dawson, the owner of the shop asked us to take a couple of pieces of the BMW that had been cannibalized down to Whitehorse. We dropped the tie rod cap and bolt at the shop in a nice used Beef Jerky bag with a kind note from Car #11.
Rolling in to Destruction Bay. Photos cropped & sized. Should be online soon.
Three TeamD cars on the road!
We've stopped in Haines Junction where we found some 802.11 and posting a quick update.
Rob and Nick hav new tires and are with us here. They didn't make Tuk but are rolling along happily
Dan and Jim borrowed an alternator from Challenge Driving and got a ride down to Dawson's City where we beleive they're back on the road. we havn't seen or heard them but we've seen position packets from their radio that put them only 130km from us. Hopefully they'll catch up to us soon.
All is well. we're not sure we'll hav connectivity tonight so this might be it for today.
cheers,
steve