We win!

Primitive wins Class 3 (seat-of-the-pants) by a wide margin in the 2008 Alcan Winter Rally (5000 miles over 10 days). We ended up a respectable 6th overall, beating several of the top computer class cars. We wanted the overall win this year, but mild conditions, and several dropped ICE SLALOM events kept us from that goal. Maybe next time.

Our team mates RDale Kraushaar and Glenn Wallace won Class 2 and did vie for the overall win finishing 2nd overall just a couple of seconds off the winning score. Our other team mates Steve Perrett and Kathryn Hansen did great finishing 2nd in Class 3.

The Primitive Arctic Challengers Team won the "TEAM CUP" for best team performance. Go Subaru!

Pix and scan down thru blogs...

Well, we did drop to 7th overall--grrrrrr, but close to 6th and 5th still.... One more day. Leading our CLASS by a wide margin.

A few more-remember more on myspace.com/arcticchallengers

More pix

Pix maybe

here

Pix

I am no longer really sick! Yea! Getting better after a trip to the clinic. We were in maybe 4th place overall after the first half of the rally and first in class, but may have fallen a little back today... We will see...
Oh, and Kala came back about 6:30am with the "can-can" dance squad...

Made it to Tuk and back down

Made it. I am really sick (bummer I know)

Made it to Tuk and back down

This will be short and you will only find pix on myspace (link quality is too low) We made the drive up the smooth, wide flat frozen MacKenzie River and across the Beaufort Sea to the town of Tuktoyaktuk (about 105 miles on the ice highway from Inuvik. Beautiful morning and sunrise (about 9am up here) in Tuk and mild temps (about 10 degrees). Kala drove up in the darkness as I continue to grow ill. The Alcan plague, and upper respiratory infection. She did quite well, with just one big tank slapper fishtail after a decreasing radius corner and an over-correction that put us into a snowbank and took just a minute to inch our way back out with the Forester's All Wheel Drive. I would take the wheel for the drive back. We did hit 121 mph for about a 3 mile stretch, but that was all she could do with those big roof racks on. ...



Kala negotiated the entire length of the Dempster back to Eagle Plains where I had soup and stayed in. Apparently others, like Jeff Zurschmeide had MANY of the local "eagle claw" drinks along with Kala and there was much bleary eyes upon our departure. We are back in Whitehorse and have a TSD and a slalom tomorrow. I am still not well, but hope to get better. Fur Rondy is in town and great ice sculptures and dog races and alike. Wish
I could go out and see them.



It is 3:30am and Kala is not back yet, so could be another bleary eye day for her.

Video snippets -Alcan Karaoke

OK, more pix

Some other from the day

More Pictures Day 5

A little warm at the Arctic Circle, Down in the MacKenzie River with the Ferry above us on the bank, Kala after a hard night Partying and decorating Doug Heredos's big blue truck

Pictures Day 5

A typical Arctic day

Day 5 Dawson to Inuvik

A well deserved day off from direct competition. No CHECKPOINTS or TSD regularities today and no ice slaloms. But we do have to make it to Eagle Plains and then Inuvik to not garner penalty points. But today that was easy as we had SUMMER-LIKE weather with atemp of 34 degrees at the Arctic Circle itself. I think Al Gore is right. It is not cold up here and a dramatic lack of snow compared to other years.

The locals tell me that is was near 60 below just some 9 days ago, but it seemed more like spring with bright sunshine outside.

We saw a mink cross the road today, but a distinct lack of animals (except a few stubborn ptarmagin that just stand in the road as we whiz past)

Lunch was at the halfway point of Eagle Plains where we will stay tomorrow after our trek up the ice road (MacKenzie River) to Tuktoyaktuk.

Pix to follow.

Oh, we did gain points on every other eam yesterday. We rocked in the TSD section (scored a 6 when the best guys did 4 with damn car #1 getting a 2). But we put 6 or 7 seconds on all those guys on the ice race so we now move into 5th overall and not too far from Team D Car #4 for 4th overall. We still lead our class by a good margin. No more competitive sections until we get back to Whitehorse..

Pictures Day 4

Remember, MORE PIX on our MY SPACE page: www.myspace.com/arcticchallengers

Ice slalom, prepping the tires

Primitive Wins the ICE SLALOM

Well, after a sketchy Big Lake TSD this morning, and certainly groggy from the bar last night, we hit our stride and won both runs on the ice slalom outside of Whitehorse and put about 7 seconds on Car 1 and 6 on Car 2 and helped improve our position there. As long as we did not pooch the TSD, we should be looking pretty good after points go up tonight.

I did a 119.1 and a 120.1 on the ice race and the other teams did about 121 followed by 125 or 126 as the conditions deteriorated (ice gets POLISHED). Gord tied me on the first run and I beat him by several seconds on the 2nd runs.

The FORESTER XT was freakin' awesome and the Cooper WeatherMaster tires kicked ass on all others! (again and as usual). Anyone not running COOPER TIRES on the ice is just a fool. They rock!!!

Kala set solid backup times (first time racing on the ice in 4 years for her).

So we made it up the Alcan to DAWSON today and are WAY UP NORTH, with a bit more to go, but the weather is unseasonably MILD and we saw 40 degrees on the transit, but it is gonna be about 10 degrees tonight... Still bikini and t-shirt weather. Tomorrow it is up the DEMPSTER and Inuvik.... Can't see the lunar eclipse, just a bit too cloudy...

Pe

Another LONG day down!

Scores say we TIED (again) Team 1 for best time on a reguality. We got 3 points and definitively lead class 3 and are still in touch with the overall points (but a ways back...)

Car 1 has 22, car 2 27 and we have 54 points.... Foresters ROCK and Cooper Tires are AWESOME. Will post pic of us at 105 mph on the ice roads.... goodnight it is 2am,...

Pix

Scores Day 2

Well, they are in. We had 30 more points today, while the computer car leaders did 17 points. No too bad and we lead the Class 3 handily, but have 51 or so total compared to the 19 and 23 and 27 of the lead cars.... aaaarrrgh. No ICE SLALOM kept us from gaining up to 10 points on them (big talk)...
The good news is that on the LAST LEG, we got a 3 and the 2 leaders (Car 1 and our team mates in car 2) got a 2 so we have figured out how to match their scores... And remember, they have some fancy computers and I have Kala. Hence we should be able to kick their ass.... Kala blushed and wants me to delete this part....

Pix are up on our MYSPACE PAGE: www.myspca.com/arcticchallengers.com and see other links to hear reports from other teams.... Maybe more scores also at: www.alcan5000.com at SOME POINT....

Pe

Day 2 Alcan in the bag

Well, the ice slalom was tossed, but they added in the 11% Grade stage which is a hoot! Try to maintain 42 mph up and down frozen switchbacks... We held time pretty well. Staying at the 28 Inn in New Hazelton, BC tonight. Mild (27 degrees now at 7:30pm and beautiful clear. Sun is down by 5:30pm.

Kala droven the AWESOME Blackwater Transit road. 100 miles of frozen backroad and she rocked and got a 2 hour winter driving lesson complete with 2 "tank slappers". We heard on the radio that several people (sounds like the BMW X5 of Car 6 and the WRX of Car 10 had to get tugged back onto the road...

More after dinner...

Kala says hi...

Saw a MOOSE up close and personal

At mile 11.9 of the Fraiser Stage (stage 2) a young moose ran down the dark hillside and jumped from a snowy bank onto the road about 150 feet in front of our car going 34mph. I saw him and hoped he would clear the road quickly, but like a moose, he hit the icy road and fell with all 4 legs seeming splaying out in different directions as he slid. But he quickly got up and continued and we were able to drive around him....

Scores

car# total points

1 2

2 6 Class 1 Wallace/Kraushaar our teammates

3 21 Class 3 us! Eklund/Rounds

4 4

5 142

6 156

7 124

8 15

9 159

10 10

11 109

12 86

13 31

14 34 Class 3 Hansen/Perrett our other Arctic Challenger teammates

15 162

16 42

17 30

18 137

19 116

20 26

21 95

22 204

23 98

24 4

Day one PIX

Some photos: Hell's Gate in the Fraiser River Canyon, Elvis is in the building, Paul looks for another co-driver, Statue in William's Lake and a great train photo...

Made it thru Day 1

We think we did pretty well on the 2 regularities today, but you never know... The first was in northern Washington and was LONG and had some tough controls. The second one (outside of Williams Lake, BC) we seemed totally on-time (and it was slippy and at least one car stuffed it lightly (Car #19 Arychuk-WRX) Car 21, Team Mitsuishi stopped and tugged them out, but lost time at the next two controls... Scores will be posted later, we will see. On the BUMMER side, looks like the Ice Race tomorrow has been scratched because they did not plow the 3/8 mile track here in Quesnel.... darn.

The drive up the Frasier Highway was stunning, bright and beautiful and we stopped for lunch at the "Elvis Rocks the Canyon, Cafe" which was a hoot (food was so-so). Pix shortly.

Pix of Forester in Action

A little wide at the checkpoint hairpin....
Ah, that's more like it!

Thunderbird Rally Results

Well, after the rush we felt Saturday night of being 5th overall while in CALCULATOR CLASS (that is an achievement) with only 22 points, we let ourselves down with a couple of slip ups on Sunday. Nothing terrible, but a couple of driving errors by yours truly got us LATE to one control and REAL EARLY to another and let our competitors beat us by 3 points for the weekend and we dropped to 10th overall. Not bad, but we can (and have done) do better.

Here are the overall results:
Thunderbird Rally 2008 Results Summary

Driver Navigator Vehicle Class Points

Jason_Webster (OR) Brandon Harer (OR) 04 Subaru STi Unlimited 20

Lee Sorenson (CA) Rod Sorenson (CA) 97 Subaru 2.5 RSW Unlimited 25

Glenn Wallace (WA) R.Dale Kraushaar (AZ) 08 Subaru Forester XT Unlimited 31

Jeff McMillen (WA) Marvin Crippen (WA) 04 Subaru WRX Unlimited 41

Greg Hightower (WA) Steven Kang (OR) 98 Subaru Impreza Unlimited 41

April Smith (WA) Marcus Song (WA) 07 Mitsubishi Outlander Unlimited 42

RJ Carroll (BC) Michelle Mah (BC) 07 Subaru WRX Unlimited 50

Marinus Damm (OR) Renee Damm (OR) 90 BMW 325ix Unlimited 62

Josh Keatley (AB) Christa Monasch (AB) 00 Subaru Forester Calculator 64

Paul Eklund (OR) Kala Rounds (OR) 04 Subaru Forester XT Calculator 67

Gil Stuart (BC) Chris Peake (BC) 67 Volvo 123GT Historic 95

Bill Joy (WA) Greg Woodbridge (WA) 94 Audi 90 Unlimited 126

Jason Stokes (OR) Vanessa Stokes (OR) 03 Subaru Impreza Calculator 196

Steve Perret (WA) Kathryn Hansen (WA) 05 Subaru Impreza Calculator 205

Karl Nylund (BC) Shane Annandale (BC) 04 Subaru WRX Novice 220

Jeff Bain (BC) Chris Mah (BC) 96 Plymouth Neon Calculator 269

David Fox (WA) Simon Fox (WA) 02 Subaru WRX Novice 305

Alan Perry (WA) Emma Perry (WA) 04 VW R32 Paper 327

Aaron Wong (BC) Jason Ross (BC) 79 Volvo 240 GLE Historic 424

Kevin Aartsen (BC) Kjetil Rui (BC) 75 VW Rabbit Novice 425

Gavin Aitken (BC) Todd Dunlop (BC) 95 Subaru Impreza Novice 482

Al Brown (BC) Howard Siemens (BC) 95 Dodge Neon Paper 528

Alan McColl (BC) Gary Bysouth (BC) 86 Mazda RX7 Calculator 563

Clarke Bayles (BC) Maralyn Hope (BC) 90 VW Golf Novice 584

James Alison (AB) Cynthia Alison (AB) 87 Audi 4000 Quattro Calculator 588

Taisto Heinonen (BC) Jim Bowie (BC) 86 Toyota MR2 Calculator 731

William McRae (WA) Dave Harms (WA) 69 VW Type 1 Beetle Historic 808

Ernie Bortolin (BC) Ron Milligan (BC) 90 VW Golf Novice 1045

Robert Gobright (WA) Jim Breazeale (WA) xx VW Golf Unlimited 1156

David Ryce (BC) Timothy Ryce (BC) 88 Mazda 323 GTX Unlimited 1700

John Voss (WA) Alan Petersen (WA) 66 Volvo 122s Novice 1845

Steven Renaud (BC) Tony Froment (BC) 86 Audi 4000s Quattro Novice 2712

Robert Friesen (AB) Heather Friesen (AB) 71 Alfa Romeo 1750 Berlina Historic 2750

Richard Childs (AB) Helen Welter (AB) 76 BMW 2002 Historic 3195

Bill Fane (BC) Tom Burgess (BC) 04 Subaru Outback Unlimited 3428

Rob Bouchal (BC) Mark McGaire (BC) 88 Toyota Tercel Novice DNF

Gary Webb (AZ) John Kisela (WA) 82 Toyota Celica GT Historic DNF

Made it to THUNDERBIRD RALLY!

Well, this is EXACTLY WHY you do a thorough shakedown before a major rally. In preparing for Alcan, we have driven up here to Merritt, Brtish Columbia for the CLASSIC Thunderbird Rally (now its 51st year I think).

We ran out of gas. Like really, came to STOP on the highway about 1 mile after the car began to stutter. The gas light had just come on and I thought we could make Bellingham.... We didin't. Luckily, as Russ Kraushaar pointed out in our Alcan Seminar in Dec, you CAN RUN on HEET GAS DRYER. We were about 1200 yards from the exit and luckily a gas station and made it on gas dryer after Kala had started walking to buy some gas... Got that out of the way...

Then Highway 5 in BC to Merritt was CLOSED due to avalanche danger, so we had to go the LONG WAY up the Fraiser Highway (HWY 1) and go past Merritt, then back down on Highway 8. About an hour or so out of our way. The road was deserted and desolate and we got to try out our new LIGHTBAR loaded with PIAA and HELLA lights.

But we MADE it, got more gas (a big roof rack and spare tire up there gets you about 2-3MPG less), got registered and teched (did I say that big ass HID driving lights are VERY COOL for driving the canyons up here) and had a beer at the Middleboro Pub.

Ready for the rally to start in the morning...

Pe CAR #10 Eklund/Rounds Subaru Forester XT Calculator Class

Alcan is just around the corner!

The 2008 Alcan Rally demands a lot of preparation and honing of driving skills. The team will travel in our reliable Subaru Forester XT, properly equipped with Arctic survival, protection and navigational gear.
The route, traced in detail in this Alcan 5000 map, starts as usual in Kirkland, Washington and travels through Yukon territory to tiny Tuk (actually Tuktoyakluk) on the shore of the frozen Arctic ocean. The route south now terminates in Jasper, Alberta.

The team, to be composed of veterans Paul Eklund, RDale Kraushaar and Kala Rounds, will compete in Class 3 (Seat of the Pants -- no rally computer) event, but hope to win overall with the combined skills of these experts. Kala and Paul won in this class in 2004, bettering the scores of almost all of the competitors in any class (see Alcan 2004), using Paul's driving skills and Kala's mathematical wizardry. The Primitive Team's sponsor is the Subaru Northwest Region.