TeamD Rally News

Retired

2007-05-25T16:09:00.001-07:00

Hi all.

This site has been retired. Please redirect your TeamD inquiries to our main home page at www.teamd.org. Thanks for all your attention and support.

Final Scores

2006-11-19T23:42:00.000-08:00

Scores are now final.

Eric and Steve parlayed their day one score of 6 to a total of 8 and first overall. Glenn Wallace and R. Dale Kraushaar put up a good fight, zeroing the second day and taking their 14 points to second overall. Marvin and I finished day 1 with a total of 22 but a 2 on the second day was enough to ensure 3rd overall, two points clear of R.J. Carroll and Michelle Mah who were the highest Canadian finishers. The third Team D car of Greg and Bill came in with a very respectable 36(?), especially considering their relative newness to the sport.

Martin Chung and Christ Monasch took first Calculator (and possbly the BC TSD championship). William McRae and Dave Harms took first Historic, Steve Perrett and Kathryn Hanson finished first in paper class (securing PCC for a second time), and Rob and Lucille Anderson finished first in Novice.

Thanks to Rallymaster Richard Lynch for the great event. Stay tuned for stories from the other Team D participants. Ask about the deer and the logging truck.

Premature end to leg 2 on day 2.

2006-11-19T16:37:00.001-08:00

"Tree!"

About 53k (of 92) into leg 2 regularity one, a fallen tree stopped the rally. There was no way to clear the tree and not enough time to transit to the last regularity so the rest of the rally was cancelled. The participant cars formed a line and followed Paul out of the regularity, to 70 mile house and back to Cache creek.

Now we eagerly await scoring.

A dirty rally car

2006-11-19T16:37:00.000-08:00

...is a happy rally car.

Day 2 leg 1

2006-11-19T16:35:00.000-08:00

Leg 1 started out with gravel and ice and ended with snow and ice. During the first regularity, we think after the last checkpoint, we lost sensor 1. Marvin quickly switched over to the backup and started tweaking the factor and we got back on time but it was a nice wakeup call.

Regularity 2 was punctuated by a small tree that fell between cars 2 and 3. Eric and steve were unaffected (conspiracy theories are flying ) but cars 3 through 6 were delayed as the tree was moved. We got back on time but the cars ahead of us were not so lucky.

End of day 1

2006-11-19T07:29:00.000-08:00

Lots of ice on leg 3. All of Team D made it through in one piece. No scores yet. Dinner is done. Sleep soon.

Leg 2

2006-11-19T07:28:00.000-08:00

Here's where it all goes wrong for car 6. Leg 2 regularity 1 goes fine but not so much regularity 2. Starting with an oncoming truck (we oull over to avoid being squished) right before a checkpoint, then continuing with a missed (by 100 meters) left turn at a checkpoint and continusing with calculation oddities. Not that we are sitting at the back of the pack, mind you, but at this point the win is firmly beyond our grasp.

Leg 1

2006-11-19T07:27:00.000-08:00

At the driver's meeting, the rally organizer promissed gravel, mud, snow, and ice. So far we've seen all four.

Leg one was one 87K regularity. We took approximately 75 of that getting our factor right.

Snow is thin but prevalent with patches of ice and mud.

Next up is leg 2 which consists of two 70+ regularities.

BC Bound

2006-11-17T21:25:00.000-08:00

Today was transit to Cache Creek day and all is well with the world.

We started at approx. 1pm at Steve's house (after a quick photo shoot) and proceeded north.

Going east from I-5 at the Mount Baker Highway, we made our way to the Sumas crossing. Aside from being a more direct route to Canadian Route 1, it also tends to be a less populated crossing. In fact, when we passed through (after stopping at the Duty Free for some important rations) we only had one car in front of us.

We are now sitting in the hotel room wasting time in the best way we know. Tomorrow will find us out on the gravel/snow/slush. Fantastic.

Totem Start Order and My Garage

2006-11-16T10:31:00.000-08:00

The provisional start order for Totem 2006 has been posted at the Totem Website. TeamD is sitting pretty. Eric and Steve are second on the road, behind last year's BC TSD Champion RJ Carroll and codriver Michelle Mah. Marvin and I are 6th on the road, sandwiched between two very competitive teams (Gary Webb and John Kisela in front and Glenn Wallace and R. Dale Kraushaar in back). Greg and Navigator-To-Be-Named-Later are two places behind us in 8th.

My preference on most rallys is 5th on the road. Up front and I feel the heat of leading the pack (plus if there's snow, you are clearing the road and there aren't too many, if any, tracks to follow). Too far back and the possibility of getting stuck behind someone increases, not to mention the chance of an angry local who has been buzzed by an earlier car and wants to take his/her frustration out on someone.

It's been raining pretty hard up here in the Pacific Northwest the last week. Maybe you've heard about it? For someone like me who's 93 year old house comes with a tiny detached garage full of yard implements, finding a dry place to work on the car is a challenge. This week I have had to fit the harness bar and the rally computer mount back into the car and I was hard pressed to find a location that would allow me enough room to pull this off without filling the interior of the car with water.

Then it struck me. I had a perfect place at my disposal. The parking garage at my office is dry and what it lacks in good lighting it makes up for in room to spread out.

I took yesterday's lunch break down in P5. I mounted the bar, installed the camera mount (I am going to record some (if not all) of the rally for posterity), and swapped the normal glove box out for the computer mount. Once Marvin drops off the computer and radio tonight, I can test the sensors to make sure that I am getting pulses [A good thing to do at least a few hours before heading out on a 5-6 hour drive to the rally location, if only to give yourself some more time to fret and worry about the sensor that you really don't want to try to fix since it's almost 11pm and it's raining outside and really, didn't you want to run in paper class anyway? After all, there's only two people in that class so you are guaranteed at least six PCC points.] and the car will be just about ready for our trip north to BC.

Totem 2006 Preparations

2006-11-13T18:15:00.000-08:00

This Friday, three erstwhile Team D cars head up north to Canada to take on the Totem Rally challenge. This two day rally in British Columbia will take us from Cache Creek to Williams Lake and back and should cover 850KM of gravel, mud, snow, and pavement.

Totem is the final rally of the Pacific Coast challenge and is the first rally of the Pacific Northwest winter season. It plays younger brother to Thunderbird in February. It usually features some early season snow and slush but unlike Thunderbird, it hasn't built up enough snow on the side of the road to act as bumpers so going off-road is a bit more treacherous.

As such, I have put "winter shoes" on the Subaru WRX. The studded Nokian Hakkapellita 2s I have been running for the past three years will see yet another season. I had discussed the idea of restudding them with my local Discount Tire but they were against the idea. My suggestion of using roofing nails pounded in from inside the tire didn't go over very well either.

Over the last week I have been looking for the snowbank magnet that seems to be mounted somewhere in the front bumper of the WRX but have had no luck finding it. I am hoping that it fell out over the summer. After leading Thunderbird 2006 all day one and late into day two leat year, that pesky magnet pulled us off the road and out of competition, leaving us stuck in a snowbank waving gallantly at the rest of the field as we waited for sweep to pull us out and back on to the road.

During Totem, I will attempt some live blogging. I have configured my Blackberry Pearl to upload photos and text to this site. As we drive in and out of cell coverage, any queued missives from the road will wing their way down and onto the site for all to enjoy.

To before heading north:

Reinstall the harness bar (removed to make room for infant car seat)
Reinstall the timewise mount and timewise (removed after every rally)
Wire up and test the HAM radio
Make sure all the first aid and safety equiment is in the car
Dig out the shovel and planks just in case the magnet did not shake loose
Buy some warm boots

Currently there are 24 entries for Totem 2006 which is about average. Marvin and I, as well as Eric and Steve in the IX and New Team D members Greg and Person X in their Audi 90, will be competing in Unlimited Class which is the most populous class and currently has 10 teams. The other seven Unlimited cars are great competitors and if history is any indication, this will be another hard-fought rally. Check back over the weekend to see how we do.

Photos all in one place

2006-09-01T23:25:00.000-07:00

Finally got around to organizing pics. All of my photos worth posting are now on my Flickr account, which is over thisaway.

Now to get started on the vids. Some of them are amusing. Need to figure out how to convert Eric's Quicktime vids to something that will play nice with Windoze Moviemaker.

In the meantime, still haven't washed the car. The yellowjackets have been feasting on the huge amount of protein squashed over all the leading surfaces of the vehicle. Now I have to concentrate on getting my 1990 900 Turbo ready for sale.

On the Road Home

2006-08-25T02:09:00.000-07:00

We finished up last night in Fort Nelson, BC. We've had a long couple of days headed out of Anchorage. We made slow time on the Glenn Highway due to construction and ended up sleeping on the side of the road in Haines Junction, YT on Wednesday evening. That left us about 80 miles outside of Whitehorse.

Thursday we made tracks through the rest of the Yukon and took a quick dip in Liard Hot Springs after crossing the YT/BC border. The drive along the Alaska Highway has been stunning -- watch for pics real soon. It's been a medley of incredible views, wonderful roads and an array of wildlife.

Should be in Quesnel, BC or further south Friday, then back in the home country on Saturday. Will probably update posts, pics and video then.

Car #9 has been travelling with us -- it's been great getting to know the guys from Georgia and they should be with us all the way home.

Finish and Photo Administrivia

2006-08-23T11:08:00.000-07:00

Nick and Marvin at the Finish

All Alcan Rally competitors and workers made it to the finish. Congratulations to all! Now Dan and I are hitting the road and driving home. A quick oil change, tire swap and laundry then we'll be on the way.

I've now uploaded all of my photographs from day 1 through the banquet and awards ceremony. Dan will probably have a few more and some videos that he'll get posted later.

Final Scores

2006-08-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

Here are the final scores. More detailed info will be posted on the Alcan website soon.


Car# Competitors     Class Total O/A  by Class
 1 Revere Jones, Brian Deno
   Tom Gould         UNL   118    1   1 
 5 Frank McKinnon, 
   John Putnam       UNL   133    2   2 
12 Jim Robertson     CYC3  237    3   1 
11 Ned Marandino     CYC3  268    4   2 
17 Dean Scheel       CYC2  365    5   1 
 9 Doug Martin, Will Amthor,
   Brantley Martin   SOP   475    6   1 
 2 Jasper Long,
   Brian Burk        SOP   516    7   2 
16 Bryan Townsend    CYC2  523    8   2 
 8 Phil Stonich, John Stonich,
   Michelle Henrie   SUV   602    9   1 
29 Jay Ritchie       CYC1  709   10   1 
 6 Neil Nash, 
   Dave Porter       SUV   741   11   2 
 7 Teresa Stonich,
   Linda Nash        SUV   743   12   3 
20 Kenneth Westfall  CYC1  830   13   2 
 4 Bill Savage, 
   Robert F Lee      SUV   883   14   4 
30 Dave Jordan       CYC2 1008   15   3 
22 Robert Lisey      CYC1 1019   16   3 
13 Bob Holcomb       CYC2 1075   17   4 
24 Kurt Forget       CYC2 1109   18   5 
28 Roger Toevs       CYC2 1223   19   6 
19 Daniel Petterson  CYC1 1248   20   4 
23 Jose Rodriguez    CYC2 1256   21   7 
15 Michael Stram     CYC3 1283   22   3 
18 Richard Henrion   CYC2 1375   23   8 
25 Mike Lacroix      CYC2 1469   24   9 
32 Aaron Gibson      CYC1 1670   25   5 
21 Glenn Parker      CYC2 1810   26  10 
26 Andrew Fekete     CYC2 1841   27  11 
 3 Kevin Kittle,
   Tyler Irwin       VIN  2530   28   1

The Big Finish

2006-08-22T16:21:00.000-07:00

We've arrived in Anchorage. All vehicles that left Kirkland are here in Anchorage. That includes the three motorcycles (two broken and one broken rider) and the Morris Minor that has worked hard to make it here despite stops along the way for serious repairs.

Today's trip from Glenallen was the shortest of the event but probably the worst of the weather. Monsoon conditions between today's start and Anchorage afforded the competitors some challenging bits along the way, including very blustery conditions along the final approach to Anchorage. Cycle rider #15 (M. Stram) laid his machine down on the final TSD section, but got up, shook it off, and completed his ride. The spirit of the Alcan event continues to come through at all levels.

Final scores should be posted soon, assuming Marvin puts his beer down long enough to get 'em up. We should have a phresh photo link as well.

Chef Dan makes sauce

2006-08-22T09:32:00.000-07:00

Chef Dan makes sauce

As an added bonus, Dan, Marvin and I got the apartment suite here at the motel in Glenallen. And when we saw that it had a full kitchen there was no arguing that cooking a meal would be way better than the restaurant food that we've been eating for the last week. Glenallen has a nice new grocery store and they had everything we needed for a spaghetti dinner, bread, broccoli, salad and fresh baked brownies.

Dan set to work on the homemade sauce, Marvin chopping and I made the brownies. By the time Rob and Nick arrived in the sweep truck we had a top-notch dinner laid out. Everyone agreed it was the best yet.

Day 8 Scores

2006-08-21T23:56:00.000-07:00

Here are the Day 8cores, only one more day to go just two TSD sections to change your score.


Car  Competitors    Class Tot O/A Tie by Class

CYC1 = IIIS (under 700 cc SOP)
29 Jay Ritchie      CYC1   691 10     1 
20 Kenneth Westfall CYC1   780 13     2 
22 Robert Lisey     CYC1   972 15 T   3 
19 Daniel Petterson CYC1  1178 20     4 
31 Timothy Pindel   CYC1  1710 25     5 

CYC2 = IVS (over 700 cc SOP)
17 Dean Scheel      CYC2   372  5     1 
16 Bryan Townsend   CYC2   479  7     2 
30 Dave Jordan      CYC2   972 15 T   3 
13 Bob Holcomb      CYC2  1029 18     4 
24 Kurt Forget      CYC2  1104 19     5 
23 Jose Rodriguez   CYC2  1212 21     6 
28 Roger Toevs      CYC2  1239 22     7 
18 Richard Henrion  CYC2  1386 23     8 
25 Mike Lacroix     CYC2  1437 24     9 
26 Andrew Fekete    CYC2  1781 26     10 
21 Glenn Parker     CYC2  1784 27     11 

CYC3 = III (under 700 cc UNL)
12 Jim Robertson    CYC3   235  3     1 
11 Ned Marandino    CYC3   266  4     2 
15 Michael Stram    CYC3   975 17     3 

9  Doug Martin, Will Amthar,
   Brantley Martin  SOP    468  6     1 
2  Jasper Long, 
   Brian Burk       SOP    510  8     2 
3  Kevin Kittle, 
   Tyler Irwin      SOP   2150 28     3 

8  Phil Stonich, John Stonich, 
   Michelle Henrie  SUV    613  9     1 
7  Teresa Stonich,
   Linda Nash       SUV    711 11     2 
6  Neil Nash, 
   Dave Porter      SUV    733 12     3 
4  Bill Savage,
   Robert F Lee     SUV    871 14     4 

1  Revere Jones, Brian Deno,
   Tom Gould        UNL    110  1     1 
5  Frank McKinnon, 
   John Putnam      UNL    135  2     2 

14 Fred Baldridge   TOUR     
27 Colin Stenhouse  TOUR

Rerouted for Day 8

2006-08-21T23:43:00.000-07:00

View from Glenallen

Torrential rains in the Denali and southern Alaska area around Anchorage closed the Denali highway so we had to make some route changes for Day 8. Teams turned east again, to Delta Junction and then south to Glenallen. After working the morning TSD section Dan and I did our usual worker task of chasing the rally all day so we didn't have many opportunities for photos of rally people.

As an additional day 8 option, some teams chose to take a side trip up the Denali highway from the Glenallen side, exploring the road that we had to reroute around. Reports are that they made it 80 miles through the scenic drive, up to the first road washout. Everybody said it was a beautiful drive.

Other teams took the Valdez option and continued past Glenallen to the coastal town of Valdez. After crossing the summit and passing through the rain clouds, the weather cleared and made this a sunny and relaxing side trip.

Repairing the Saab

Dan and I intended to make the Valdez trip but had some trouble. About 60 miles from Glenallen, with Eric behind the wheel, the Saab made a loud bang and started running as if the exhaust pipe had fallen off at the engine. Stopping to look we found that the #3 spark plug had ejected itself from the cylinder head. This plug had been trouble before and a few weeks before the rally Dan had done a repair. The repair proved insufficient. We disconnected the #3 fuel injector and puttered along with three cylinders to Glenallen. Passing was impossible, hill climbing was very slow and the car was noisy but we made it. (Thanks to John in the gear van for sticking behind us.) Luckily this was a short day so we arrived well before the NAPA store closed. And doubly lucky, they had one remaining helicoil spark plug repair kit. An hour of labor rethreading the head and installing the repair insert and we were back to full power.

Ferry Approaches

2006-08-21T10:55:00.001-07:00

Ferry Approaches

The George Black Ferry carries travelers across the Yukon River at Dawson City in the Yukon. The Alcan 5000 Rally got an early start on Day 7 with a quick crossing and a timed TSD section up the hill from the river along the Top of the World Highway.

Dan and I had a little surprise when we found the Saab wouldn't start after we got on the ferry. No worries though, we pushed it off on the west side of the river and the ferry crew brought out a jump starter box to get us moving. After getting it started it didn't have any further problems but it sure gave us a wakeup.

Ferry Top of the World Panorama

The Top of the World Highway was very dramatic. The road runs along the ridgelines of the mountains so every turn reveals a new vista that takes your breath away. We crossed into the United States at the northernmost border crossing in North America at Poker Creek. It's a remote outpost on the top of a ridge with a great view. Quite a spot to be stationed.

The town of Chicken, Alaska (signed as "Chicken Community") was next along the road and everybody stopped in downtown Chicken to check things out. Apparently the original miners wanted to call the town Ptarmigan but nobody could spell it so they settled on Chicken.

Fast Eddies restaurant in Tok, Alaska was a welcome stop for lunch with quick service and good food. (The halibut sandwich is highly recommended by TeamD.) No time to rest very long, competitors went straight into a timed section before the run into Fairbanks for the night.

Major flooding has struck southern areas of Alaska closing the Parks Highway which goes through Denali National Park and is a major north-south route between Fairbanks and Anchorage. The rally was supposed to take this route south but we now have to reroute on Day 8. Instead of the Parks Highway we'll head back toward Tok and turn south at Delta Junction to our overnight at Glenallen. This shorter day 8 route will give us all time to take the side trip to Valdez, Alaska.

Finally -- Some videos Days 1-4

2006-08-19T23:56:00.000-07:00

Very brief and low quality shots of action, mostly from inside the car with my limited camera.

All are posted on Google Video, so performance should be good.

Here's Day 1
Day 2 is more interesting, but longer
And Day 3 has some of Telegraph Creek
The 4th Day was a damp trip to Skagway and back to Whithorse

More later!

Dan's pics to Day 6

2006-08-19T23:38:00.000-07:00

Just a few pics from my camera can be found here

Still working on the videos. I can put them up in raw form, but they really will benefit from a bit of editing, I assure you.

Kicking Back in The Klondike - Day 6

2006-08-19T23:15:00.000-07:00

Today was a rest day for the crew of the Saab, as well as many of the other staff. Most of the competitors headed up the Dempster Highway to reach the Arctic Circle. A few stayed behind and we held a short TSD up to the Midnight Dome outside of Dawson City in the morning. Eric and I got to see the Arctic Circle sign (and points well north of there) two years ago, so we elected to stay in town, catch up on some sleep, and watch the Discovery Days festivities. We also took a trip up the Bonanza Creek road system, well less than 100 miles, to check out a potential future TSD section for another year's Alcan. Incredible 360 degree views, for hundreds of miles.

Looking north to the Ogilvie Range, where the Dempster heads to Inuvik, it was clear that conditions are dramatically different from our last visit. I was surprised to see that there was no snow visible at all. Living near the Sierras as a child and the Cascades as an adult, I'm used to seeing snow-capped mountains year-round. You'd think it'd be the same here this far north, but they're serious about summer. In fact, it's been quite warm -- to the point that we've wished for air conditioning in the car a time or two.

On the trip back to town we had a close encounter with a black bear sprinting across the road. Bears can move FAST. You've no idea until seeing one truly motivated to make some tracks. We also played peekabo with a weasel-like critter that we've yet to identify. Eric got a few good pics of it.

Tomorrow we'll cross the Yukon on a small ferry, then head over the Top of the World Highway via Chicken and Tok in Alaska to end the day in Fairbanks. Two TSD sections face the competitors -- their stress is not over yet!

Day 5 (Friday) On the South Canol Road

2006-08-18T23:50:00.000-07:00

Swimming in Quiet Lake

There are a seemingly endless number of scenic lakes here in the Yukon, and chances are that when you stop the car to take a break you'll have a lake of some sort in view. Today we stopped on the shore of Quiet Lake, about forty miles along the South Canol Road to take some pictures of the car with the lake and mountains in the background. After standing a few minutes, Brantley of car #9 announced that he wanted to go swimming and headed to the car to dig up his suit. It took me a minute to realize he was serious and the idea clicked with me too. As Brantley headed down to the water I ran up and threw on my suit too. A minute later both of us took a diving leap into the crystal clear and freezing cold lake. Ouch was it cold. Brantley was back out in a flash and his dad had to bribe him with a five dollar bill to dive again for a picture.

The swimming adventure was a tiny break from the long, long drive today. Car #9 and our Saab were the only two cars to make the optional Day 5 South Canol loop trip. (Other than the cycles and support vehicles that headed to the North Canol Road on Day 4.) We left Whitehorse at 8:30 and backtracked 80 miles on the Alaska Highway to Johnson's Crossing and the South Canol Road. The South Canol Road is 140 miles of narrow winding road with no services and no people. It meanders North and Northwest to Ross River. The sole purpose of this road was to facilitate the building of an oil pipeline during World War II so it has received only maintenance in the last 60 years. It is largely unchanged from the way it was built. I think it is much like the Alaska Highway was way back when it was built and before it was modernized and straightened. The road is a blast to drive, the scenery is awesome and it was definitely a highlight of our trip.

After a lunch of Triscuits and ham for lunch we turned West again on the Campbell Highway back West toward Carmacks. The road was paved for a short bit and then resumed being a “major highway, gravel.” We all had a chuckle as we approached Carmacks noting that it is only 100 miles from Whitehorse where we started the day and our scenic loop had taken us 9.5 hours.

Old Alcan Rally Vehicle

In Carmacks, Dan and I had a mission. We headed into town to look for Alcan Winter Rally 2004 #13, a red Mitsubishi Montero. On the way south from Inuvik in February of 2004 the Montero had broken down and been towed to Carmacks. The owner of the Montero hitched a ride with other Alcan competitors and left the Montero with intentions of picking it up in the summer. We had no idea if we would find it or if he had indeed come back to get it. It didn't take long to discover that the Montero is indeed still there abandoned in a junkyard with other fatalities of the northern roads. It still has door and window decals that say “Alcan Winter Rally” and some almost new studless snow tires but otherwise it clearly had not moved since being towed there two and half years ago.

Our final miles into Dawson City were tough. It had been a long day in the car and we were getting crazy. We struggled to stay motivated and moving but finally arrived at the Eldorado Hotel in Dawson at 9:00 pm, with twelve and a half hours of driving under our belts.

We dove right into food and caught up with news from the teams and workers that camped out on the North Canol Road on Day 4. Lots of stories there, hopefully we can get words from one of those teams.

Tomorrow is Saturday, Day 6 and we are looking forward to another easy day with time to rest and explore Dawson City.

Day 5 provisional results

2006-08-18T20:11:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday after going over the regs again we (the royal we I think) discovered the SUV class had been skipped. So the overall scores are all the same but the class order has been changed.


Car # Competitors        Class Tot O/A by Class

CYC1 = Class III (700 cc and under)
12 Jim Robertson         CYC1 100  3   1
11 Ned Marandino         CYC1 193  4   2
20 Kenneth Westfall      CYC1 593  10  3
29 Jay Ritchie           CYC1 609  11  4
22 Robert Lisey          CYC1 655  13  5
15 Michael Stram         CYC1 745  15  6
30 Dave Jordan           CYC1 747  16  7
27 Colin Stenhouse       CYC1 844  19  8
19 Daniel Petterson      CYC1 905  21  9
32 Aaron Gibson          CYC1 1182 27  10
31 Timothy Pindel        CYC1 1218 28  11

CYC2 = Class IV (over 700 cc)
17 Dean Scheel           CYC2 242  5   1
16 Bryan Townsend        CYC2 396  6   2
14 Fred Baldridge        CYC2 787  18  3
23 Jose Rodriguez        CYC2 897  20  4
13 Bob Holcomb           CYC2 927  22  5
24 Kurt Forget           CYC2 952  23  6
28 Roger Toevs           CYC2 1031 24  7
18 Richard Henrion       CYC2 1131 25  8
21 Glenn Parker          CYC2 1155 26  9
25 Mike Lacroix          CYC2 1223 29  10
26 Andrew Fekete         CYC2 1317 30  11

SOP = Class IS
2  Jasper Long/
   Brian Burk            SOP 402   7   1
8  Phil Stonich/
   John Stonich/
   Michelle Henrie       SOP 462   8   2
9  Doug Martin/
   Will Amthar/
   Brantley Martin       SOP 464   9   3
3  Kevin Kittle/
   Tyler Irwin           SOP 1350  31  4

SUV = Class IIS
7  Teresa Stonich
   Linda Nash            SUV 641   12  1
6  Neil Nash/Dave Porter SUV 675   14  2
4  Bill Savage/
   Robert F Lee          SUV 776   17  3

UNL = Class I
1  Revere Jones
   Brian Deno/Tom Gould  UNL 47    1   1
5  Frank McKinnon/
   John Putnam           UNL 66    2   2

Dawson City

2006-08-18T19:15:00.000-07:00

Discovery Days Celebration is being held at Dawson City while we're here. Right now the Yukon Riverside Arts Festival is setup down along the river (although I haven't visited yet) and tomorrow is the Discovery Day Golf Tournament and Discovery Day Run. Not to mention some sort of TSD :) Or a side trip to Eagle Plains (via the Dempster Highway) and for an extra 52 miles a visit to the Arctic Circle crossing.

Worked the TSD this morning, thankfully many of the bikes were on the camping trip up the North Canol Highway. The TSD was 35 minutes long (including a 10 minute pause), the route went up a road into the hills, looped around (the 10 minute pause was here), and went right back down. So the workers all worked two checkpoints, one each direction. If all 31 entrants had been there it would have been a bit complicated to get everyone timed correctly.

Then it was head up Highway 1 and 2 in the support van (with the cycle luggage). My attempts to take photos and stay on the road were a limited success, here are a few.

I'm currently sitting in the bar waiting for the rest of Team D (Dan & Eric and Nick & Steve) to show up from their side trips. I suppose I should print out scores and hand them out.

Friday at last

2006-08-18T08:12:00.000-07:00

Most of the rally has been a blur so far for me, was a bit shocked yesterday to discover it was Thursday! But Friday morning has rolled around, it's a beautiful sunny morning in Whitehorse. Dan and Eric just left for their South Canol trip with Car # 9 in tow. The rest of the cars and about 5 bikes will start the only TSD of the day (Long Lake) at 9 a.m., all the teams that are doing side trips (North Canol camping last night and South Canol bypass this morning) get the same score as the winner of the Long Lake TSD. Long Lake is a 9.5 mile there and back TSD.

Friday plan: Canol and Cassiar

2006-08-18T08:10:00.000-07:00

Eric and I decided that we need a few more miles and are going to go the long way ‘round to Dawson today. We’ll backtrack down the Alaska highway about 80 miles, turn north on the Canol road to Ross River, then head west on the Campbell Highway to rejoin the route at Carmacks. Should be fun!

If It's Tuesday it must be the Cassiar

2006-08-18T08:06:00.000-07:00

What’s this? A dual day report? Yes, because we are pressed for time and the rally marches on.

So does car #3, the Morris Minor from New Mexico. They disappeared early on day one, in the town of Hope BC. I apologize for not mentioning them early but the departure early in the event pushed them off my blog radar. However, they caught up to the Alcan in Whitehorse late last night (Thursday) and are ready to press on. We’ll do a full report on their tribulations later.

Day two started from Quesnel, with a long gravel section called the Blackwater Road. Cutting the corner to Vanderhoof, we missed the metropolis of Prince George and drove about 110 miles on fun gravel roads. Most of the traffic encountered was of the bovine kind and the route varied from wide and smooth to narrow, twisty and grin-inducing.

There were plenty of checkpoint workers, so we cruised ahead to the second TSD near Fraser Lake. Colin Stenhouse experienced a serious engine failure and had to put his bike on the trailer with planned work later in Dease Lake or Whitehorse.

The third TSD began outside Hazelton and got off to an unsmooth start with rally traffic delayed by a funeral at ‘Ksan village. Nearly one hundred local cars got out in front of the first competitors and caused a ten minute pause to the beginning of the longest gravel competitive section – nearly fifty miles ranging from fast and smooth to fast and VERY bumpy. At the end of the section we hung back to wait for news of bike #26, who disappeared between our checkpoint and that of Jerry Hines and family. He eventually realized that he missed an important turn, and met up with the cycle support duo of Rob Dunn and Nick Marcuse in the Big Black Excursion, assisted by scoring master Marvin Crippen.

They were about 30 minutes behind us but ended up getting delayed with #26 had mechanical problems at the Hyder junction of the Cassiar.

That location also allowed us to meet up with Mama Bear and her two cubs. You can say howdy to them at the photo page.

The Cassiar is an alternate route, closer to the coast than the Alaska highway but less traveled. Reported as completely paved, there were significant gravel sections that made fast trekking interesting. Watching a group of motorcycles play chicken with a juvenile black bear was a treat. For us, anyway – I don’t think the riders were laughing about it at the time.

The staff that got to Dease Lake ahead of us kept the kitchen at the motel open and we rolled in a little after ten pm to find an impressive selection of meal options and friendly staff happy to get us fed and rehydrated.

Alcan Rally Day 4 Rest and Repairs

2006-08-18T01:45:00.000-07:00

Alcan Rally Day 4 Repairs

The rally stops in Whitehorse on Day 4. Many of the motorcycles headed out again today on the South Canol Road to Ross River and then on to the North Canol Road for a rustic overnight adventure. Meanwhile the rest of the cycles, all of the cars and the event staff took a rest day. Many used the day to make a roundtrip to Skagway and others simply rested from the first three long days of the Alcan Rally.

Skagway was interesting but completely insane. There were four cruise ships in town and about 6000 people dumped onto the streets of this very small town. As we drove in and walked around we found that we were as much a curiousity to the cruise ship tourists as the town itself. I've visited Skagway three times, the first in 1996 and it is amazing how things have changed even in that amount of time as the large scale tourism has grown. It was interesting to go but not the Alaska that we came to visit.

Cycles #31 and #32 did work on their bikes in Whitehorse on this day off. Tim Pindel #31 worked to change his gearing so that his highway cruising would better match that of his teammate #32, Aaron Gibson. These guys are having a great time and really savoring the Alcan Rally experience. Aaron is writing about his trip in his blog but as he has learned, time is precious on this rally and finding time for updates is a another of the many challenges.

Telegraph Creek Road

I finally got caught up with photo uploads through Day 4. It includes pictures from our drive out to Telegraph Creek and lots of other stuff. Hopefully wading through the growing pile of pictures is not too much trouble

Tomorrow the Whitehorse teams will head to Dawson City and the cycles on the North Canol will break camp and converge there as well. The rally will be whole again and ready for the home stretch.

Focus on the Now!

2006-08-17T23:11:00.000-07:00

So says Marvin, who is advising us. Fortunately for him, he's now on the list of posters for this blog.

I'm going to skip ahead. We're on Day 4, and in Whitehorse.

Many of the bikes and the hardy workers supporting them headed out to the Canol Highway this morning. They will be spending the night with the able support of Alcan staff, including a big ol' tent and a number of sleeping bags and other support items hauled by a variety of large vehicles.

Those of us not involved, including all the cars, went to Skagway, Alaska today.

One of the cool things about this trip, other than the fact that it's a nearby 120 miles, is that you leave from the Yukon, go through a corner of British Columbia, and then descend into a isolated corner of Alaska. Immigrations isn't a joke, but it's not as serious as the main crossings at the mainland US/Canada border, that's for sure. We had a nice chat with the US customs guy, who was interested in the Saab ("What a great car for these roads!").

Skagway was probably cool ten years ago. Eric says it was different even four years ago. Now it's packed with jewelry stores an other useless crap outlets. There were four -- FOUR -- cruise ships tied up at the docks when we rolled in. Most of the touristas were headed back when we arrived. It was still crowded -- Skagway is quite small.

We're under no illusions that we aren't tourists as well. But it's hard to ignore a slight sense of superiority when we've driven to this remote corner of the world in a small old car vs. arriving in a state of the art floating apartment building.

On the return to Whitehorse (only 120 miles or so, BTW), we stopped at a couple of historic spots. The Log Cabin location was interesting, however we were swarmed by skeeters in a fashion that made us scramble for the safety of the car.

Ok, Eric needs to post something.

Day 1 Delayed Report

2006-08-17T22:46:00.000-07:00

VERY delayed. We're in Whitehorse now and trying to look over notes to nudge our faulty memory banks into what happened. Believe it or not, just a few days can quickly fade when filtered through the haze of many miles of highway and gravel roads that is the Alcan 5000.

Picked up Eric early in order to make the start in Kirkland. We flirted with the idea of skipping the launch of cars and bikes in Kirkland, but we did not yet have our worker instructions, which were really the entire reason that we were going to this thing.

I packed the Saab the night before, and didn't forget anything. Well, except for the extra long antenna I usually bring for rallys. It's a 5/8 Larson for you radio geeks. Not a huge deal, except for the long transits, it makes it just a tad harder to chat with competitors and workers.

So we got on up the road and worked a checkpoint outside of Alger, WA, near some railroad tracks. The challenge was quickly apparent: how do you note the number on a bike when it's going by at 40 mph? It's hard.

So we do the border crossing, with the requisite Duty Free stop. We take it easy up the main freeway and go through Hope, observing the Morris Minor off the road with an apparent ignition problem. A stop at the Hope Subway sandwich shop results in a learning experience. Jose Rodrigues (cycle #23) tells us about hte brotherhood of BMW riders and we also learn that a US-based Subway card mystifies the clerk.
Part of doing well on this event is figuring out how the rallymaster has measured the TSD scoring sections. We're not competing but we DO need to know where our worker positions are located, with the ultra-secret location information embedded. Except we've concentrated on other important objectives like ice chest contents and music precedence. Anyhow, we don't end up dialing in our external odometer, though we do make all of the assigned locations with no problems because both Eric and I have driven them both and know in a general sense where the routes are located.

Day One was the Grease Day, meaning that Eric and I committed to unhealthy food. This culminated in the Fried Platter of Quesnel, that we could not finish, even with the help of other rallyists. Scurvy may set in soon.

Car repot: A little oil usage above normal. We had to make some time up after passing Hope (Beyond Hope?) so the turbo working overtime is to be expected.

Day 3 Results

2006-08-17T00:42:00.000-07:00

Eric and I have been busy working checkpoints, chasing entrants and trying to put photos and video together.

here are current results as of end of day 3 in Whitehorse, Yukon
Standings as of Day 3

These are NOT correct classes, but scores ARE correct (I've been informed 24 hours after posting this)
Unlimited
Pl Car# Team             Score
1   1   Jones/Deno/Gould    38
2   5   McKinnon/Putnam     55

SOP
Pl Car# Team                 Score
1   8 Stonich/Stonich/Henrie  262
2   2 Long/Burk               351
3   9 Martin/Amthar/Martin    395
4   7 Stonich/Nash            545
5   4 Savage/Lee              576
6   6 Nash/Porter             651
7   3 Kittle/Irwin            1120

Cycles
Class 1 (under 650cc)
Pl #  Rider     Score
1  12 Robertson   91
2  11 Marandino   184
3  20 Westfall    584
4  22 Lisey       646
5  15 Stram       736
6  19 Petterson   770
7  27 Stenhouse   844
8  32 Gibson      952
9  31 Pindel      988

Class 2 (over 650cc)
Pl #  Rider      Score
1  17 Scheel      233
2  16 Townsend    267
3  29 Ritchie     600
4  30 Jordan      738
5  14 Baldridge   778
6  28 Toevs       801
7  24 Forget      831
8  23 Rodriguez   888
9  13 Holcomb     918
10 18 Henrion     931
11 21 Parker      955
12 25 Lacroix     1023
13 26 Fekete      1117

That's all for now. Sorry we can't give more info.
More pics and video tomorrow.

Any typos or errors are because of the Yukon effect.

Baby Bear Cubs

2006-08-15T19:05:00.000-07:00

Baby Bear Cubs

Wildlife is out and about enjoying the passing of rally traffic. These bear cubs and mother were spotted along the Cassiar Highway on day two. Pictures are being added to the Flickr Photo Set.

Photos of Day 1

2006-08-14T23:58:00.000-07:00

Cycle #31 Day 1 Soda Creek Section

Greetings from Quesnel, BC the end of day 1 of the Alcan Rally. Here are my Best Shots of Day 1 hosted at flickr.com. If I got any of the car or cycle numbers wrong, let me know!

Registration and tech photos

2006-08-14T00:57:00.000-07:00

Taken by my #1 minion.

The full set of reg and tech photos we have can be found here, if I'm not up too late trying to post photos instead of sleeping.

Loaded for Alcan

2006-08-12T12:00:00.000-07:00

The Saab is pretty much packed and ready to go. Just need to arrange personal items, give the windows a thorough cleaning, and we're good for an early Monday morning departure.

The saga of preparing the Saab can be found at the Saablaag.

Our designated (by my kids) guardian Buzz, who braved the WRX roof rack for Winter Alcan '04, is back up where he belongs and rarin' to go.

Eric and I will be working checkpoints and helping with radio stuff. See you up the road.

Dan Wrenching the Saab

2006-08-11T22:11:00.000-07:00

Dan Wrenching the Saab

We're heading north! Dan has been getting the Saab beat into shape over the last few months and I am grateful for that. It means I'm not having to do it to my car! The final touches are being put on and departure is imminent.