Alcan 5000 & Winter Rally Information
A couple of weeks ago I posted a blog about my ‘Bucket List’ Rally, the Alcan 5000. I wanted to add another source of information for those of you thinking of doing the Alcan 5000 or jumping in to try any other winter rally.
There is a Yahoo! Group for the Alcan 5000, which is sharing a lot of great information for running the upcoming event. Plenty of information for all levels of experience. Got some time … join the group and give it a look!
“Rally Tales” – January 2012
“Rally Tales” is back!
Rally Tales is now a monthly feature to be posted on the last Saturday of the month. While the blog is geared towards RallyCross and Road Rally; ‘Rally Tales’ can be about/from any form of rally.
Question/Topic for 25 February 2012:
I recently made a blog posting about my “Bucket List” rally, the Alcan 5000. Do you have a “Bucket List” Rally/ies? What are they? And when do you think you’ll get a chance to do it?
Submit your ‘Rally Tales’ here.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
This month’s question/topic:
What have you been doing in the off-season to prepare for the coming Rally season? (Please include the types of rally in which you participate)
It looks like Jamie “Subie Gal” Thomas, is preparing to go rallying this season. The video wasn’t really submitted, but I thought it was a really cool time-lapse video that was on topic. Video by Miller Event Studio.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Name: Clarence Westberg
Rallying Since: 1970
Types of Rally: All
Regions and/or clubs: Land of Lakes, Alfa, Mini, MG
Cars You Rally: 58 MGA, 2009 MINI Cooper S
What off-season, winter is our busiest rally season. I was Rally-master for Yucatan Safari National in December, Just ran two rallies in NE Minnesota last weekend. Feb 11th I’m putting on a regional then off the Houghton, Michigan for a regional Feb 25th. The winter season ends March 10 with the Lucas Flamethrower in Red Wing, MN. Two weeks later the summer season begins.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Name: Jeremy Keck
Rallying Since: 1997
Types of Rally: Rallycross
Regions and/or clubs: CNY SCCA ….Wellsboro, PA STPR
Cars You Rally: 03 Pontiac Grand AM
2 get ready for the upcoming rally season I have been driving the back roads around the Wellsboro, PA area… the same roads I’ve driven since I was 14 and my dad was teaching me 2 drive…. the scenic views and tight slippy roads make it all that much more fun 2 drive… I’ve also volunteered to help with the waste management winter rally held February 11 in Antrim… I’ve grown up watching rally and love driving the roads around this area… Drive hard my friends!
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Name: Paul Eklund, Primitive Racing
Rallying Since: 1983 Worked Pro Rally
Types of Rally: Stage, TSD, Vintage, Adventure
Regions and/or clubs: Oregon, NORPAC, and Rally America
Cars You Rally: 2004 Alcan Forester XT, 2008 STi (stage) ’72 Fiat Spyder
No “off” season this year, put a new forged turbo motor into the gold Alcan Forester to be able to hit ~128mph on the ice river… Now prepping taller suspension for the record snow, and building a tubular bull bar w/winch. Also re-shelling good old ‘ol Yeller rallycar into a wide-body GC Impreza (’97) It met a nasty end this summer…
Lightbar on 2004 Alcan Forester
Paul Takes top time at Alcan Ice Race in black Forester 2004
Oregon Trail Rally at Night
North Nevada Rally off
Old Yeller Recovery edge of road
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Name: Dave Haworth
Rallying Since: 2007
Types of Rally: Rallycross and Road Rally
Regions and/or clubs: Oregon Rally Group, Oregon Region SCCA
Cars You Rally: 2011 Ford Fiesta
Throughout last years RallyCross season, I was making changes to the Ford Fiesta to prepare it for RallyCross in the Stock FWD Class. We have added a skid plate from Primitive Racing, 4 pt. Schroth Belts and we are running on Hankook i*Pike tire (which have fabulous grip). I did well in class last year finishing 2nd in the points. The car is good for RallyCross, what I need to do this year is improve my driving. I have spent a lot of time reviewing what I did last year mentally and on video. There are definitely things I need to improve on in my driving style. In short, some things in need to work on are: 1) sometimes I have too much steering input and/or I am too aggressive 2) better gear choices for different corners (I think I would be better running in a higher gear more) 3) monitoring wheel slip better and a bunch of other little things.
I saved nearly 20 lbs in weight in the car, by getting it off my ass. I’ve been working on loosing weight. Now I just need to workout a bit more, mainly so I can RallyCross for many more years to come.
As far as Road Rally goes; I’d really like to do more gravel and winter rallies this year. I have added a bit more under-body protection to the car, but would like to do a bit more. The big improvement in the off-season was the addition of a newly fabricated light bar for the Fiesta from Primitive Racing and the addition of 2 Hella driving lights and a set of PIAA fogs. You can see more about that and other additions I have done on my personal website: http://brickinitrallyteam.wordpress.com/
Wednesday’s Rally Eye Candy 1/25/12
Help us out, if you have some cool pictures or videos (past or present) that we could use for Wednesday’s Rally Eye Candy, send it in! Even if you just come across something you think the community would think is cool, forward it along to us.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
I am wanting to RallyCross so bad, and this picture of Jacob Perkins having fun in the snow only makes it worse.
2012 NER SCCA Rallycross Championship (Jan-Dec 2012). Photo by Douglas Bolduc.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
The Bentoboxer takes on a TSD. Photo from Minxx's Flickr stream (http://www.flickr.com/photos/minxx/)
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
SCO 2011 TSD 14. Photo by Martin Brummell (http://www.flickr.com/photos/49837331@N06/)
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Thank you all for your contributions!
If you would like to contribute a photo or video for next week, please visit Wednesday’s Rally Eye Candy Submissions.
My ‘Bucket List’ Rally
Team D 325iX on the hauntingly beautify yet lonely Dempster Highway south of Eagle Plains, Yukon Territories, Canada. Read more: http://www.europeancarweb.com/news/0408ec_bmw_x3_wins_2004_alcan_5000_winter_rally/index.html#ixzz1kAIr8Lh9
I have a handful of rallies that are on my ‘Bucket List‘; at the top of the list is the Alcan 5000. The website bills the rally as: “A tour of northern contrasts, with 230 miles of NWT ice roads and three ice slaloms. 2012 marks the 24th anniversary of the first winter Alcan in 1988.”
The winter version of the Alcan 5000 is run every four years, with this years event being run from February 23 to March 2, 2012. The rally will cover 4,490 miles, starting in Kirkland, WA, traveling through British Columbia and the Yukon, then finishing up in Anchorage, AK. It will use some of the ice roads you may have seen on the TV show “Ice Road Truckers”. Unfortunately, 2012 is not in the cards for me, but I am already looking forward to the 2016 running of the Alcan 5000.
Here is a video I came across on Youtube by Rally Team D of Day 5 of the 2008 Alcan 5000.
There is a ton of information about the rally (throughout the years) on the Alcan 5000 website. Enough information to plant the seed of desire to run this extreme winter rally adventure.
One of the accounts of the 2008 Alcan 5000 that I enjoyed from the website was “North To Adventure – A rookie crew tackles the Alcan Winter Rally to learn more about the rally game, their BMW and themselves” by Renee and Marinus Damm.
In golf, scoring a zero means you didn’t play. By mid-afternoon on Day One of the AlCan Winter Rally, Renee and I have already run the opening time-speed-distance section in Washington State and crossed the border into British Columbia; there, cruising east on Trans-Canada 1, we see golfers at a course just off the freeway,
chasing their version of perfect execution. These players roam over the greens and fairways, finding infinite challenge in a relatively small and well-bounded arena. Their difficulties come partly from wind and precipitation and fatigue and misjudgments… just as ours will.But our course stretches out ahead of us to the northern horizon and beyond—and a single round of play will take ten days.
I can’t wait to hear/read the stories from this year’s event. Good luck to all the teams and safe travels.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Dirty Cones and Checkpoints would love if one or more of the teams running this year’s Alcan 5000 Winter Rally, would like to provide us blog updates from the event. It is fine if it is a repost from your blog. It doesn’t need to be long. Even if it were just pictures and/or videos. If you’re interested please email at editor@dirtyconesandcheckpoints.com.
Thanks,
Dave
Need Help With A Logo
Dirty Cone and Checkpoints could use a logo, but I have zero artistic ability. Do you or someone you know have the abilities to develop a logo for the website? Something that incorporates RallyCross, Road Rally and North America would be great.
If you are interested, please drop me an email editor@dirtyconesandcheckpoints.com.
Wednesday’s Rally Eye Candy 1/18/12
We didn’t get many submissions this week, but I had a bit of time to look at some rally related stuff this week.
Help us out though, if you have some cool pictures or videos (past or present) that we could use for Wednesday’s Rally Eye Candy, send it in! Even if you just come across something you think the community would think is cool, forward it along to us.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Here is a video from a couple first time TSD Rallists (Ryan and Brittany) on the 45th Annual Covered Bridge TSD Road Rally (New England Region, SCCA) . It was uploaded by RallyHHRT.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Nov. 12th Prairie City NorCal SCCA RallyCross. Photo by Tim. See more of his photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/timeconsumer/
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Praire City RallyCross, March 23, 2011. Photo by Dusty Wall. See more of his photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dustywall/
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
CFR RallyCross. Photo credit pending. https://www.facebook.com/pages/CFR-Rallycross/226310670727034
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Thank you all for your contributions!
If you would like to contribute a photo or video for next week, please visit Wednesday’s Rally Eye Candy Submissions.
Wednesday’s Rally Eye Candy 1/11/12
Wednesday’s Rally Eye Candy is back!
We are coming into a new rally season and we are firing up the Wednesday’s Rally Eye Candy feature again. While I do quite a bit of searching for Road Rally and RallyCross related pictures and videos, I can always use your help. If you photograph or video events; send in some of your best to share with the community. If you come across some good pictures or videos, send them my way (I’ll get the permission to share it). Forward the information to editor@dirtyconesandcheckpoints.com.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
This video was emailed to me by a friend, it is from the 2011 Totem Rally, uploaded by Splashesca. The video of “The Swedish Fireball” features cool footage edited with some really cool music. Nice job on the video!
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
This video was emailed to me by a frequent supporter, Jacob Perkins. The video of the 2011 SCCA RallyCross National Championship was shot and edited by Eric Michalski for a Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology assignment.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Here are some pictures by Jonathan Beck from the November 2011 Covered Bridge RallyCross (NER Region SCCA).
Photo by Jonathan Beck
Photo by Jonathan Beck
Photo by Jonathan Beck
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Thank you all for your contributions!
If you would like to contribute a photo or video for next week, please visit Wednesday’s Rally Eye Candy Submissions.
Upcoming Finger Lakes Region (SCCA) Events
RallyCross
Winter RallyCross Number 2
Hopefully we’ll get some snow and have some frozen fun.
More dirt, more grass, more snow (hopefully) and a Kick ass course are planned for this months RallyCross. The course is long with some super fast spots and some sweet technical …spots. Come down and slide around in the dirt, get ready for that winter driving with out the snow and cold.
Working on a plow guy if you know anyone please let me know.
Registration/Tech Inspection at 9:00 am
First car off at 10 am
Helmets required Loaners available.
We will be charging $5.00 more per car/driver but we will be supplying lunch at the break with it… hots and hamburgs on the grill.
SCCA members $35
Non Members $45
Call with questions, Tony Zanni, 585-281-2510
More info: http://www.flr-scca.com/rally/2012/rallycross
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/297161466982649/
Region/Club organizing the event: Finger Lakes Region, SCCA
Date and Time: Sun, January 15, 10am – 4pm
Location: Perry’s Park, 4538 Caledonia Rd, Leicester, NY 14481
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
TSD Rally (unpaved)
The 3rd Annual Ithaca Winter Rally
** One of the best running winter road rally series continues with the 3rd Annual Ithaca Winter Rally, January 21, 2012.
** Rallymaster Gary Thomas has created a new route for this year with roads heading out of Ithaca towards Watkins Glen and back. This is a rally of approximately 175 miles using paved and unpaved roads in the southern parts of West-Central New York. Teams of driver and co-driver fight the clock and road conditions to be on time all the time in this series.
** Never run a TSD rally? Novice class school available at 3:30pm. Come out and take the TSD Challenge.
** There is a 35-car limit, so pre-registration is recommended.
** Series classes are Equipped, Limited, Stock, and Novice.
** Entry fees are $35/car for SCCA members; $45/car for guests.
** Snow tires are recommended (all-season tires may limit your speed group eligibility), tow rope/strap, and 90 minutes of flares or one DOT triangle are required to compete.
** The rally starts and ends at Manos Diner.
Schedule: Registration 2:30 to 4:00 p.m.; Novice School 3:30 p.m.; Driver’s Meeting 4:10 p.m.; First car off: 4:31 p.m.; First car finishes 10:45 p.m.
** There are several hotels in the area for those wishing to stay overnight after the rally. The Comfort Inn is right across the street from the Manos Diner
Region/Club organizing the event: Finger Lakes Region, SCCA
Date and Time: Sat., Jan. 21, registration opens at 2:30 p.m.
Location: Manos Diner, 357 Elmira Rd (Route 13), Ithaca, NY
Contact person (and their information): Gary Thomas, (607) 277-0501, gary.george.thomas(at)gmail.com
What’s Coming and How You Can Help the Website!
In the coming days I am going to be updating the website for 2012. So here is a wish list of the input, submissions and or help we would welcome … well we would welcome most any input.
I am going to start getting the “Upcoming Events” section up to date. So if you are planning an event, send me the information and I’ll get it on the website. You can email me the information at editor@dirtyconesandcheckpoints.com or use the Submission Form.
This coming Wednesday (1/11/12) we are going to restart “Wednesday’s Rally Eye Candy” segment. It is pictures and videos of primarily RallyCross and TSD Rally, but if you have an exceptionally cool picture and video of any rally related subjects we’ll definitely consider it. I came across a really cool video from Totem 2011, that we’ll post on Wednesday, but if you have some cool pictures and video’s you’ve been sitting on … send them in. See Rally Eye Candy Submission Details.
For the time being, the “Rally Tales” segment will be monthly and we’ll post it the last Saturday of the month. The question/topic for the 29 January 2012 post is:
What have you been doing in the off-season to prepare for the coming Rally season? (Please include the types of rally in which you participate).
Don’t wait to the last-minute to send your submissions in. You can send in your submission by using the ‘Rally Tales’ Submission Form.
We can definitely use more article and event submissions! Embrace your inner-writer. If you think it would be of interest to the RallyCross or TSD/Road Rally community … we could use it.
Do you want to promote your event? Send us an article or press release.
I would love to see some articles about:
- Preparing for a winter rally (useful with Thunderbird and the Alcan 5000 approaching)
- Preparing for the RallyCross season
- Preparing a car for Road Rally
- TSD navigation strategies
- How to start/or grow a RallyCross or Road Rally program
- Writing a good TSD Rally
- If you got an idea write it up … or ‘pitch it’ and maybe we can find a person to write it.
We would love some people who are participating in the Alcan 5000, who would be interested in blogging the event for Dirty Cones and Checkpoints!!!
Not in the “Links Page” and you want to be; submit you link using the “Contact Page“.
Please “Like” us on Facebook!
Please “Follow” us on Twitter!
Lastly, I could always use some help managing this website and the content. We could use editors for Canadian RallyCross and Road Rally. If you are interested in helping, please email me at editor@dirtyconesandcheckpoints.com.
Thank you for your continued support and Press On into 2012!
- Dave
