TeamD Adventures

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.