TorontoTim

Day 6 (Whitehorse > Dawson City, Yukon; ~400 miles/645 km): 8:48am the TR started!!! We were back in the rally!!! Having lost a day, we had to choose whether to run direct to Fairbanks, Alaska to rejoin the rally and attempt the run to the Arctic Circle the following day, or follow the original rally route (a day behind the field) through Dawson City and over the Top of the World Highway and rejoin the field on their second night in Fairbanks. We were sorry to lose the Arctic, but Dawson had always been a highlight of the trip for us, so we chose to go that way. What a great dr

While I leave you all on a minor cliff-hanger about what happened next (no spoilers from those who know the answer!!!), let me answer John's question by saying that I actually HAVE done the Alcan again. I entered the winter version of the rally in 2016 in the same 1980 Audi Quattro that we competed against in 2014. I was navigating that time and we easily won the Historic class. The rally followed the same general route but included a run up to Yellow Knife in North West Territories where it was seriously cold!! We drove over frozen lakes (including a time trial on one) and crossed a fr

Day 5 (Whitehorse, Yukon; 0 miles/0 km): As the rest of the rally left Whitehorse and headed to Dawson City, I removed the head to reveal cylinders 3 & 4 full of water – head gasket blown. But everything else seemed ok. While I was working on it in the hotel parking lot, a guy wandered over and asked if he could help. This is how people are in Yukon. And his lucky number is 5. Because of these things he - Dennis, “Mr. Pain” - drove us all over town introducing us to travel agents, mechanics, engineering shops and Air North at the airport. As a result, and with the help of TRR Fo

You can't beat it, Roger...

Day 4 (Watson Lake > Whitehorse, Yukon; 560 miles/900 km): This was the tough day. It started well enough with a TSD section made up of a couple of loops around Watson Lake followed by a run out to Skagway in Alaska and back to Whitehorse. We cruised past the gas station after just 20 miles; we still had a 3rd of a tank and there was gas listed at the Continental Divide Lodge 70 miles up the road. Sounds like a big place, right? Like it would always be open. Nope. Next gas another 75 miles. And we seemed to be getting through gas faster than usual. Fortunately, Joanna and Seth

A few more photos from Stewart BC. A very remote place right up against the south end of the Alaskan border, known mostly for Heli-skiing and one of our favourite places on the rally...

Day 3 (Stewart, BC > Watson Lake, Yukon; ~550 miles/885 km) Day 3 and we were starting to get into the routine: Up early, fuss around having coffee, some kind of hurried breakfast while worrying too much about the start time only to find that we then had to hang around for over half an hour because we had rushed far too much… Ah, such are the stresses of rallying. All of which led to me making three wrong decisions in the first 2 minutes of the day as we kicked off with a TSD section. Fortunately, Jan (novice navigator, remember) totally had her act together and mostly pulled u

Day 2 (Quesnel > Stewart; ~508 miles/820 km): Day 2 was dominated by two very long, very tough gravel/pot holed roads (Blackwater and Mitten Forest). The tone was set at breakfast where Keith, the Audi Quattro driver, told me that some who had done the Alcan before were genuinely worried for us and our little car. I decided NOT to pass that on to Jan until we were out the other end when we also stopped for a nice celebratory cigar! As it turned out, we and the TR have been down rougher roads, but nothing that rough, for that long. The first was 100 miles long, the second “only” 63! B

Ok, enough of the boring pre-rally ****. Let's get to it. What follows now is our impressions of the rally, day by day - in each case the post will start with my report followed by Jan's. Remember that these were written at the end of each day, sometimes shortly after parking up and checking into that night's hotel; sometimes after a bite to eat and a beer or two. One more reminder: Jan had never done ANY rallying before... Day 1 (Kirkland, WA > Quesnel, BC; ~480 miles/770 km): The day started early with all competitors milling around in the parking lot chatting ne

Prologue: As you can imagine, there’s not a lot of room in a TR with a rollover bar, a bunch of tools and spare parts in it and Jan and I were going to be away for eleven days. So when I flew out to Vancouver on Friday, 15th August, I took the one (water-proof and, hopefully, dust-proof) bag with me, plus a camera bag which I could squeeze a spare hat and sunglasses into; Jan would bring another backpack to be stowed down by her feet. We had T-shirts and underwear for three days (we’d do laundry in the hotels) and hoped we had the right clothing for both 30C temps in Seattle as well as

Prepped and ready...

A few photos of preparation...

Photos to follow...

Ok, so before we get into the actual daily reports let me give you a little background of how we ended up in the Alcan 5000, what the rally actually IS and information about the car. Then we'll get into the meat of it... Introduction: It all seemed pretty straight-forward when I first suggested to my girlfriend Jan that we attempt the Alcan 5000 rally. Sure, it’s 4,500 miles (7,200 km) in only nine days in some pretty remote parts of Canada and Alaska, but Jan and I LOVE being in our 53-year-old TR4 (it was 53-years old back then - now it's almost 63), driving it all over the back-

Hi All, A little while ago, the suggestion was made that it might be entertaining if I reposted the story of when my amazing partner Jan and I competed in the stupidly long Alcan 5000 rally (Seattle to Anchorage) with our stupidly old 1961 TR4. Well, it's been almost 10 years since we went on that road trip (August 2014) so perhaps it's appropriate. At the time we posted our daily "blog" on Facebook which we later compiled into an article that appeared in a number of magazines including our very own TRAction. I've decided that, following some "establishing" posts, I shall post them

Or as the incomparable Phil Lynott used to say.. "Is there anyone here tonight with any Irish in them? (Big cheer) Are there any of the girls that would like a little more Irish in them?".