ALCAN 2008

Back from the Arctic....

2008-03-19T19:58:00.000-07:00

Almost a let down, but nice to get over this hacking cough finally. Great memories and more pix to come... Above, the WINNERS overall: Greg Hightower, Gary Webb and Russ Kraushaar (hiss) and then the party afterwards with Kala and Jen, then Kala plays MOOSE HUNT at the bar and finally PAul and Kala toast their CLASS 3 win (again)

We win!

2008-02-28T10:34:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-02-25T23:49:00.000-08:00

Pix and scan down thru blogs...

2008-02-25T23:38:00.001-08:00

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

2008-02-25T23:33:00.000-08:00

More pix

2008-02-25T23:22:00.000-08:00

Pix maybe

2008-02-25T22:23:00.000-08:00

here

Pix

2008-02-25T20:32:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-24T03:21:00.001-08:00

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

Made it to Tuk and back down

2008-02-24T03:21:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-21T20:47:00.000-08:00

OK, more pix

2008-02-21T20:29:00.001-08:00

Some other from the day

More Pictures Day 5

2008-02-21T20:11:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-21T20:04:00.000-08:00

A typical Arctic day

Day 5 Dawson to Inuvik

2008-02-21T19:37:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-20T19:52:00.000-08:00

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

Ice slalom, prepping the tires

Primitive Wins the ICE SLALOM

2008-02-20T19:43:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-02-20T01:47:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-18T23:21:00.000-08:00

Scores Day 2

2008-02-18T23:13:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-18T19:39:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-18T06:53:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-17T23:28:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-17T21:26:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-17T21:20:00.000-08:00

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.