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Race News
(2012) read down for
cool pics...
Bible Creek
Hillclimb is August 18th and I will be running the H6 powered Subaru
Impreza Coupe in a Street Modified Class. Been 8 years since I
first ran this event in the venerable USX.
Mountains to
the Sea Rally on August 11, by the Cascade Sports Car Club is a
classic, running from Portland to the Oregon Coast. We drove
the 1972 FIAT Spider and took 1st in SOP class with a score of
289. Next is the Columbia Gorge Classic Rally on August
19th.
Monte Shelton
Northwest Classic Rally was July 26-28th from Portland to Bend, OR
and back in my 1972 Fiat 124 Spider. We are the defending
CHAMPIONS, but a broken SPEEDOMETER early in the rally kept us from
the repear. We fought hard and still took 6th overall with no
speedo and no odometer.
Primitive has
fielded a 2004 Forester XT for the 2012 Alcan 5000 Winter
Rally. Equipped with PRIMITIVE strut top spacers with stock
springs, the car has 11" of clearance under the rocker panels,
handles the ice and snow like a dream with 215/75/15 Cooper
WeatherMaster S/T tires (big, flexy sidewalls) and lights up the
night with IPF lights from ARB. The crowning piece
allowing fearless entry into any snow drift is the custom ALUMINUM
BULL BAR BUMPER manufactured by PRIMITIVE and going into production
this summer.
The team of
Paul Eklund and RDale Kraushaar took the early lead in the rally,
but slipped to second on the second day of TSD regularities.
Visit FaceBook page for PAULEKLUND to read along with details and
quips.
The rally
then headed FAR, far North up the 400 mile long Dempster highway
with the goal of reaching Inuvik, the largest city north of the
Arctic Circle (about 30K people) and up the 105 mile long ice road
on the frozen Makenzie River, across the frozen Arctic Ocean
(Beaufort Sea) to the farthest town north you can drive a car to,
Tuktoyaktuk, NWT (Northwest Territories, Canada) But the
rally got stopped at the Arctic Circle in the tiny gas stop of Eagle
Plains (250 miles north of Dawson). The road ahead was closed
due to a big "blow" (read BLIZZARD) and 4 semi's were
stuck in the snow and the plows could not reach them or keep the
road clear. Most of the rallyists turned back and returned to
Dawson. Temps at Eagle Plains was about minus 12 degrees F,
but that night plunged to -31F for the 7 teams that elected to stay
the night and hope the road would re-open. We did not stay,
but headed back, fearing the SOUTHERN portion of the Dempster could
close at any moment if the blizzard shifted. We made a
beautiful drive back, stopping at a GEOCACHE along the Dempster and
celebrated my birthday that night in Dawson having a bit of the
famous "Sour Toe" drink at the Downtown Hotel. The
sour toe is a real, severed, human, big toe that they keep desiccated
in a jar of rock salt, then drop into your shot of Yukon Jack.
They chant: "you can drink it fast, or drink it slow, but you
lips MUST touch the toe..." Again see my FB for
more details and info on that....
Meanwhile, as
the rally moved on towards Tok, AK, Valdez and Anchorage, the teams
at Eagle Plains awaited the highway to open. It did not open
for 3 days.... Some teams left and headed south after just one
night, others held out. In the end, 3 cars made it north and
achieved Tuktoyaktuk. Car 13 (OBXT) Car 15 (Mini Cooper) and
car 16 our own instructor Steve Carper in a Toyota Yaris. Only
Car 13, driving about 24 hours straight caught up to the rally again
(in Valdez) the others met the rally at the finish in
Anchorage. So Primitive customer, Stephen Davidson, in the
2005 Outback XT received the Isuzu "Go Farther" award for
being the only car to complete the entire route of the rally.
Primitive
team meanwhile RE-TOOK the lead of the rally, then EXTEND IT,
building a comfortable margin. Then disaster struck as the
engine mysteriously failed (rod bearing) as we headed to the hotel
in Valdez where the car died and had to be towed to a qualified
repair facility....
A sad, sad day for the
Primitive team, for in order to finish first, first you must
finish. Congratulations to our tough competitors, Gary Webb
and Marc Goldfarb in a Mini Cooper Clubman who took over the lead
and finished out the rally. We toasted them at the
finish. More later, but I am tired and a bit sad. But
the ALCAN adventure is AWESOME, the people great, and PRIMITIVE is
considering putting on a bigger, better Alcan Rally in winter
2014. More regularities, more EXTREME checkpoints and more Ice
Race venues. Please EMAIL ME at: paul@get-primitive.com
for more details.
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Primitive Racing Thunder Lizard Logo T-Shirt.