2014 Alcan 5000

[TorontoTim]

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 here as separate posts.  They won't appear every day like in the original - I'm afraid that my busy job won't allow that - but I will try to add them regularly and in sequence so that you get a feel for the experience.  And anyway, posting the whole thing at once wouldn't leave any room for suspense, would it?

I won't say too much about our respective approach to the reporting but I think you'll get a good feel for our character differences as it goes along.

Many of you, of course, will have read this all before but I'm hoping that it is interesting enough to bear repeating almost 10 years later.  For some it may the first time you've seen this.  Either way, I hope you'll indulge me.  I'll add pictures too, of course. 

Almost 5,000 miles to the Serious North in only 9 days in a 1961 TR4?  Sure.  Great idea...

Stay tuned for the full story.

Tim

[John Morrison]

Looking forward to this Tim, 

John.

[Lebro]

Still got the TR Action copy !

Bob

[Deggers]

Has it really been 10 years? 

Have always been a fan of your 'backroads' approach to enjoying your TR, Tim. Enjoyed reading about this trip in 2014. Looking forward to seeing some more pictures.

Cheers, Deggers

[SuzanneH]

Great, can’t believe it ten years since I followed this on Facebook. I’m looking forward to reliving it all with you and Jan again.

[Hamish]

This will be new to me-

can’t wait……

[TorontoTim]

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-roads and gravel lanes of Ontario.  And, although Jan has never been anywhere near a competitive rally, I have experience of historic rallies in the UK and single-day TSD rallies of the Ontario championship, so the fact we’d be competing against others and trying to keep to an accuracy of one second while driving at various different average speeds on several competitive sections each day was a positive plus!  It took us all of about 10 seconds to decide to enter – after all, we had something like 16 months to prepare.

So, we told everyone we knew that we were off to tackle the epic 2014 Alcan 5000.  Some thought we were mad (including my Dad); some wanted to come with us (Jan’s Dad); most were just a little dumbfounded.

Then Jan came up with the great idea of us raising money for Cancer research and we told more people and posted our plans on forums, websites and set up a Facebook page.

It’s amazing how quickly 16 months can disappear – before we knew it, we were standing beside the TR in the parking lot in Kirkland, Washington, waiting for our start minute to arrive; cigars packed, ready to celebrate the completion of a great adventure wherever the end of our own rally might be. 

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  This is the story of how we took a 1961 Triumph TR4 on a huge rally, across two countries, four states and provinces, amongst around 50 other mildly deranged fellow adventurers…and lived to tell the tale (and drive the additional 4,100 miles/6,500km home to Toronto).

 

The Event:

The Alcan 5000 starts in Kirkland, near Seattle, Washington and heads north through British Columbia, Yukon Territory and on into Alaska over nine days [see map] over some of the very best of the northern “highways”.  The event has been running since 1984 making 2014 the 30th anniversary.  It runs every two years, alternating between a winter rally and a summer rally; we decided that the TR would likely prefer to go to northern Canada and Alaska in the summer.  The Alcan pursues the original idea of rallying as a grand tour, motoring adventure, and gentleman's sport which, it says, rewards “experience, good judgement, consistency, reliability and resourcefulness”.  All this means that we’d be trying to cover around 500 or more miles each day, much of which would be untimed “Transit” sections.  However, every day there would be one, two or three timed-to-the-second “TSD” (or “Regularity”) sections which each competitor has to start exactly on time; the pace would be pretty relentless for all nine days – even without any reliability issues.

The entry list for 2014 included eleven, two-man car crews and 32 motorcycles; we were, obviously, entered in the “Vintage” (pre-1984) class with a 1982 Audi Quattro and a 1972 VW Thing.  This also meant that we could only use “period” navigation equipment – ours consisted of an accurate rally odometer, mechanical (wind-up) clock and stopwatch plus a book full of “speed tables” which has a vast set of numbers telling us exactly how long it should have taken us to travel 3.2 miles at 48 mph, etc.

The Car:

My Triumph TR4 rolled off the production line on October 3rd, 1961 which makes it exactly three days older than I am.  It is number CT217L and is one of the earliest of the TR4s which means that it has all the original specifications, before Triumph started improving everything!  It has TR3A suspension and brake design, the short-bulge hood and innumerable funny little quirks and parts that are not common with the later 4s.  This isn’t really a problem when it comes to obtaining parts - but it’s an interesting curiosity.

I’ve been rallying the car on and off in the Ontario Road Rally Championship since I bought it in 2008 (my navigator and I took it to victory in the Novice Championship in 2010) and I’ve steadily, but mildly, modified the car over this period.  New things for the Alcan included a fire extinguisher (required by the regulations, although it’s a sensible thing to carry anyway), a competition rollover bar (ditto), and a long-range alloy tank.  (Although fuel was expected to be available every 150 miles, we were advised to ensure that we had a range of 300 miles; this tank meant we’d be fine…so long as we filled up often enough; more of that later!)

I had also planned to rebuild the engine before the rally but various distractions meant that I ran out of time so I contacted Macy’s Garage in Dayton, Ohio (7 hours’ drive from Toronto) and Mark agreed to put other work aside to enable them to rebuild my engine in under three weeks so that I could hit the date to send the TR out to Vancouver on a train.

While the engine was away, numerous other little jobs were done making sure that the car was fully prepped and stocked with all the parts and “emergency repair” things that I could think of that we might need on this epic drive.  Engine back in, test drive completed, final tweaks…READY.  Just in time!  [For full specification and parts list, etc. see Appendix]

On Monday, July 21st I drove the TR4 to the rail yard and dropped it off.  There was no turning back now!!!

[TorontoTim]

Photos to follow...

[brian -r]

Thanks Tim , looking forward to re visiting your journey.

We moved house in 2015 and some mags "were lost in transit"  including the one with your article

Cheers Bri

[TorontoTim]

A few photos of preparation...

[TorontoTim]

Prepped and ready...

[TorontoTim]

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 near freezing temperatures in the high passes of Alaska.

I collected the TR from the shippers that afternoon and drove across Vancouver checking all the systems.  I fitted a replacement Kenlowe fan control box, filled up with gas and checked my route down to Kirkland for the next day.  Given that the rally covered something in excess of 500 miles of gravel roads, I had decided that two spare tyres (plus an additional pair of inner tubes) would be a good idea.  Of course, there isn’t room for two spares in a TR4, so the second one had travelled to Vancouver in the passenger seat; I now needed to deliver it to the “sweep” truck who had kindly agreed to carry it for us (along with the ‘bike tyres) so that Jan had somewhere to sit when I picked her up at the airport the next day.

Sunday, collect Jan from Vancouver airport, a quick (3 hour) run down to Kirkland for the last 15 minutes of a 2 hour drivers’ briefing (oops), scrutineering to check safety, warning triangles, extinguishers, insurance, etc. and we were ready to stick on our rally numbers (car 5).  We spent the rest of the warm, sunny evening eating pizza, dinking a couple of beers and getting to know some of our competition for the next nine days.

I wasn’t expecting to sleep too much as I was excited for the start – Jan wasn’t quite so excited about my setting the alarm for 6:30…  Tomorrow, the rally starts!!!

[TorontoTim]

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 nervously and checking (and re-checking) clocks, pencils, pulses…  Finally, 8:05 came up on the clock and we pulled out waving to the Audi crew and friends who had come to see us off.  The rally started with a 65-mile run north from Kirkland followed by the first of the day’s 2 TSD sections.  These are the parts of the rally where our ability to accurately drive at a number of average speeds is tested – arrive at any checkpoint a second early, or a second late and you lose one point.  There are 13 of these in the whole rally and they are likely to be the sections that decide the winners by the time we reach Anchorage.

In case anyone’s missed it, this is Jan’s first EVER rally so, obviously, she has never attempted a TSD section before.  We had agreed to start gently without worrying too much about our timing, but had done some calculations to help us keep somewhere close.  Jan’s job was to ensure we stayed on the right road, taking all the correct turnings, and zeroing the stopwatch at the appropriate time; my job was to try to drive at the correct speed.

After 45 seconds, Jan said “This is too stressful, I don’t like this…”  But I then didn’t hear a single murmur of complaint and we largely sailed through the section.  Jan was fantastic:  calm, organised, clear – and even put up with my usual habit of asking the same question three times.  In fact, she said it was great – she could tell me to do the same thing several times without any complaint from me at all!

We crossed into Canada and then had a wonderful drive along Route 1 to Hope and, having put the top down on the TR, drove up through the Fraser Canyon Highway, mountains on either side.  Beautiful!  Many miles (and a much-needed latte) later, we had the day’s second TSD at Williams Lake.  This started badly, because as soon as we set off at our allotted minute, the rail crossing ahead closed.  We were immediately 4 MINUTES behind.  There followed some “spirited” driving through a quick, heavy rain storm as we fought to catch up the time – this is where a TR excels and I was glad that I know the car well.  We managed to get back on our minute although, in the end, the first checkpoint was cancelled because so many were delayed.  This left us in second place overall with only 13 points lost over the whole day.  A quick final blast to Quesnel, and a VERY well earned beer.

Jan’s impressions of Day 1: 

Unbelievable. Truly. Top down, driving through the mountains. Beautiful. This car was made to be driven. The "timed to the second" bits are STRESSFUL!!!!! I feel successful. I did it! My first rally so far is going well. About 20 minutes AFTER the last TSD my heart was still beating hard and I broke into stress tears for about 10 seconds....then it was gone.  Over. Tim is an amazing driver and I have to admit I am excellent at telling him what to do OVER AND OVER AND OVER. It's like a dream come true. I get to repeat instructions without getting in trouble. Not once did I hear "I heard you the first time!" haha. Flipping FANTASTIC!!!

 After 11 hours of driving....I'm not sore but I am tired. Canada is a beautiful country. Feeling grateful.  Looking forward to Day 2! So pleased to be doing this.

[Tony_C]

Great stuff Tim..

[TR Rob]

Loving this…what an experience !

[TorontoTim]

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! Both started open, wide, smooth and FAST for the timed to-the-second sections, and both became very rough, narrow and, in the case of Blackwater Road, liberally populated by unpredictable cattle. One of which I missed by inches. Compared to a TR4, they are BIG!!!!

The pace was relentless all day and we had to cut a short TSD at Fraser Lake because no matter how fast I drove, I couldn't get out of Blackwater quick enough to make our start time. I also discovered, later, that our mechanical Mig-fighter clock has become a little unreliable so we started the timed sections almost a minute off our scheduled time – this then makes us late at every check-point…  The result was that we lost a total of 260 points for the day which dropped us to 7th overall.  On the up side, Jan was amazing - she was controlling both navigation and timing on the longer stretches of the TSDs AND didn't cry at the end of the stressful stuff.

The reward for all the hard work was the final run out to Stewart BC. Breathtaking scenery of mountains and glaciers towering above us with waterfalls, huge pines and a river beside us.

Jan on Day 2: 

Today was mental. I hurt. I was unhappy. I was terrified. I was LIVING!!!!!! We have done well. I am a kickass navigator!!! Who knew??? We encountered a bear. But it was the COWS. The f-ing COWS that scared me to death. Just standing there waiting to hit me!!! We started the day in 2nd place, so that's good news. BUT I have been completely consumed with dying by way of the following things: cow, moose, ridiculous drops off, large massive boulders in the road, road graders coming in our direction on OUR SIDE of the road, avalanche, road wash-aways into gorges. You know...regular death things. Tonight I hurt. The pain from tensed muscles is bizarre mostly because I didn't know I had those muscles. All of this to say the VIEW is INCREDIBLE and everyone single one of you should see it. Time for a glass of wine and bed.

[TorontoTim]

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 us through my “nervous Nelly” debacle.  All seemed to have just about sorted itself out when we came across three stopped motorcycles admiring a bear.  This held us up and, once we got going again, we found a check point around the next corner – so we must have been late!!  Bah!

Other than that, the morning went well and we covered a huge transit section of just over 200 miles before facing the option of heading to an “Extreme” control at the end of Telegraph Creek.  Given that it was 176 miles of unreliable gravel which would take 4 hours to cover (and that the penalty for not going was only the equivalent of 10 seconds) we opted to stay on the transit and head straight for the Yukon.  Thus, we crossed into the Yukon for the first time at the civilised time of around 5pm.  We had also chosen to run the whole day with the roof down – mainly because the scenery is so spectacular.  Even several sharp rain showers didn’t “dampen” our enthusiasm because at around 60mph (~100 km/h) the rain just blows over our heads and we stay almost completely dry.

Following the classic photo opportunity at the “Welcome to Yukon” sign, we pushed on to Watson Lake for the overnight halt.  Along today’s route, we spotted 6 bear, 1 bald eagle and a moose (well, Jan saw one in a nearby marsh – I was staring ahead too intently, in case there were any at the roadside, waiting to wander into our path).  Jan’s navigating skills are becoming very high quality, I’m probably driving too fast and the TR is steaming along gathering fans everywhere it goes – especially with the other competitors.  A couple of minor issues today that were quickly fixed:  a wire become disconnected from the coil causing the engine to stop (diagnosed and fixed in 2 minutes) and one windshield wiper came adrift…but it was only on the passenger side…!

Jan again: 

Day three was a debacle at best. I have to come to grips with a couple of things. I am NOT a thrill seeker and I am NOT a boy and I DO get totally spooked. I am likely doing a disservice to all rallying women who have gone before me and for that I apologize. However, the cows from day 2 totally freaked me out. As I rallied along in the passenger seat in our little, red, tin death-trap I couldn't help imagining the worst possible scenario for 10 hours straight. The 6 bears on the side of the road in the early morning didn't help. The long, windy roads with bush right up to the edges did not help. All I could imagine was a moose prancing out in front of us. Someone here told me it that she hit a moose once and it was like driving into a couch in the middle of the road. NO THANKS! Then it started to rain. Then we lost the passenger side windshield wiper. So, I was driving blind....oh WAIT...I wasn't even driving. I was passengering blind! (yes, new word). So, now I am totally out of control, with a boy who LOVES the winding roads, following a rally car in front who has a radar detector (so we are going a wee bit faster than usual), on the windy roads, in the rain, BLIND!!!   Arrived in Watson Lake...and I went to bed. Tim....poor Tim.

[Tony_C]

Loving the Navigators notes! 

[TorontoTim]

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...

[SuzanneH]

Jans notes are fab and bring back memories of our first Scottish Isles Tour in 1999, when we encountered a huge  bull mounting a cow beside us in the TR4A on a very narrow road on Skye, I was terrified and thought we were going to be squashed car and all. The bovines had a drover with them who must have been all of 15.

Edited April 13 by SuzanneH

[stillp]

On 4/12/2024 at 6:57 PM, Tony_C said:

Loving the Navigators notes! 

Me too!

Pete

[TorontoTim]

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 in car 6 were behind us and they had a jerry can on the roof of their Toyota 4 Runner.  We both stopped and shared out most of the fuel, keeping some back for an emergency which, seeing as I'd just discovered a leak from our fuel pump, might actually arrive.  No worries – we made it to Teslin Bridge services, fitted the spare pump and filled up.  A quick coffee, and we pushed on to Skagway Alaska, the original gateway to the Klondike gold rush.

There is a 3,000 ft/1,000 m drop in 5 miles down to sea-level; straight down.  All the way down, I thought “this will be interesting coming back up…”.  Down in Skagway, we fixed a flat tyre (how does that happen on smooth asphalt after all those rocky roads?) and headed back up that long hill.  It was 30C at the bottom and, as we started the climb I had the Kenlowe on, the heater wide open and could still watch the temp gauge steadily rise.  We also had a fair amount of pinking/pre-ignition as we climbed – due, I thought, to low-octane fuel but actually, as I later learned, to a stripped thread on the distributor clamp which allowed the timing to wander.  Unsurprisingly, the TR overheated.  We stopped to let it cool, but not enough.  We pressed on, it continued to run very hot and, after a long wait at the Canadian border, it finally cried enough and suddenly blew; steam so thick that I initially thought it was a fire. 

It was clear that things were serious and that it wasn’t going anywhere under its own power, so Joanna and Seth (who were again just behind us) towed us the 80-odd miles to Whitehorse.  We retired to the bar thinking our rally might be over – I planned to strip off the cylinder head the next morning to see how bad things were, but put out a call on social media for a head gasket in the hope that that’s all we would need (having had the engine rebuilt before the rally I foolishly didn't bring a spare head gasket in our otherwise very extensive spares kit).  At this point, we were lying in 9th overall…

Jan:

I decided my key to being less insane was to know that I have no control over the lurking moose waiting to pounce on me and run me over like a couch. To RELAX! It worked. When we almost ran out of gas...I was ZEN. When we had to change the fuel pump because we were leaking the very little gas we had left....ZEN. When we got the crack in our windshield...not on my side....war wound. No problem. When we parked on the flat pavement of Skagway, Alaska only to find out we had a flat tire pointed out by an old man....I sipped my latte (YES LATTE!!) in bliss. Nothing this old car can't handle. What can we expect? 1800 miles without a flat! No problem. Going back up 3000 feet above sea level, on windy roads and the car smoking on the outside...nothing my lovely Tim can't handle. Smoking on the inside and I hear " Holy $%^ FIRE EXTINGUISHER!!!" What? We HAVE A FIRE EXTINGUISHER IN THIS CAR??? What? Where? Panic. Pull over.

Not good.

Being towed DOWN those windy roads, alongside cliffs, 7 feet from another vehicle for 85 MILES....less Zen. So, there I sat in my non-controlling position and my fate is no longer in Tim's hands on those windy roads, but complete strangers’. If they decide to drive off the cliff (which I imagined several times) I go with them. I have no choice. They are my heroes today. Not only did they decide today was not the day to drive off a cliff but they were FANTASTIC at hauling our butts off a very big hill...some might say mountain. I am so grateful to them but I should give a shout out to Tim for doing it every other day. Way to go pal for deciding not to drive off a cliff all of those other days. How did I get down the hill without having a stroke? I decided it was better for everyone if I just covered my eyes. So I did. I covered my eyes. Every time I opened them there was a rainbow. No kidding. A rainbow. I'm certain it was lucky. I have been to Yukon, British Columbia, Alaska and back to Yukon today. Not bad for one day. Tomorrow....don't know. Fingers crossed that we can get something shipped here in time.

[John Morrison]

You going to do it again, Tim?

John.

[TorontoTim]

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 Forum pal Paul Barnes, Drake’s British and many others, a new head gasket arrived at our hotel at 10:30pm and we had a newly skimmed head, ready to fit in the morning.  There isn’t space here to tell the whole story of our most amazing day but if you ever doubt humanity, call me and I’ll share it with you: it will restore your faith in people, I guarantee it. 

(One quick example – having found the gasket, organised flying it into Vancouver and out again to Whitehorse, we discovered that there wasn’t time for baggage handlers to offload the gasket in the South terminal and get it to the other terminal before the last Air North flight of the day had to leave.  “No problem” says the Air North pilot; “I’ll wait for it at the South terminal, put it in my flight bag, get a lift to my plane and bring it up to Whitehorse myself.  Just have someone meet me when we land and I’ll hand it over.”)

I set the alarm for 6am hopeful that I could get the engine back together and running. Either that, or we were done.

Jan:

Today I learned so many things but mostly I learned that 'dear god please do not let my daughter grow up to be like me.' Working on my blind faith in humankind I got into a VAN, ALONE, with a strange man named "Mr. Pain" and let him drive me to the airport in the Yukon in hopes of finding my way to Kelowna to pick up a part for our car so we could keep on going. Yesterday, I was going to die by running into a moose or falling to my death over a cliff but TODAY I somehow decide that this is the best way to go about getting on with this rally. Something is clearly not right with me.

This man was the loveliest person we could have possibly imagined meeting. It was a lucky day for us. Extremely long story short....our rally ended yesterday and magically starts again tomorrow because people made things happen for us. The gasket will arrive, the cylinder head has been skimmed (btw…I have NO idea what that means), our radiator cap has been replaced, our sparkplugs are new and our tyre has been fixed. We were about to leave our hotel room to treat Mr. Pain to a beer and some dinner and Tim says "small problem. I seemed to have misplaced the car key" WHAT? Room search...not here. It's where it always is...in the ignition. We are fine. Just fine. Really. I mean it. Fiiiiiiiiiiiiinne.

[TR Rob]

What a wonderful story…after all that I hope you keep going, and look forward to further updates.