TeamD Adventures

Final, final scores have been posted on the official Alcan Winter Rally website. There were rumors at the awards ceremony in Anchorage of a tiny math error in the calculation of the scores for the last day of the rally. Now that the hardworking scoring team has had a chance to drive themselves home to California they have corrected these errors and posted the final version.

Scores for a number of cars (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 16) were corrected, mostly for the better. Only one correction affected overall finish position–TeamD car #7 edged out Challenge Driving car #2 by 0.3 points for the fifth place title.

Full scores are available below or on the Alcan Winter Rally website.

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Our first day out of Anchorage and we’re in Beaver Creek, Yukon, barely one mile into Canada. Oddly the Canadian customs agent stamped our passports. In all the times I’ve entered Canada they’ve never stamped it.

But the coolest thing about Beaver Creek is that we totally lucked out on a place to stay. We called and stopped at the 1202 Motor Inn which is one of only a few structures in Beaver Creek. After telling him we needed three rooms with two bed each he said “how about a house?” He took us outside and pointed to the stairs at the end of the porch and said to take a look, “it’s nice and I’ll make you a good deal.”

We ended up with two ajoining apartments that run the full length of the log cabin that is the restaurant and store below. We have four king beds, a queen, and two twins. Three bathrooms, two sitting areas with satellite TV and two nicely equipped kitchens. All for $130 Canadian! It is an awesome setup.

Before leaving Anchorage, Eric answered questions from throngs of curious citizens. They were very interested in TeamD and all the cool technology in our sharp looking rally car.

We’ve eaten and packed here at the Millenium Hotel in Anchorage. TeamD is heading out for some quick sight seeing and gift buying before hitting the road again for the 2500 mile drive home. All three cars are traveling home together by way of the Cassiar Highway and hope to be home Monday. Along the way we’ll get to enjoy a bit more scenery and who knows, if there’s time we’ll stop back at Barnes Lake in British Columbia for one last go at an ice covered lake.

Thanks to everyone for their comments and support during the rally. We appreciated the feedback and hope you enjoyed our coverage. After we get home we’ll finalize our stories, post our pictures, analyse our GPS data and wrap up our coverage of the 2004 Alcan Winter Rally.

We knew this was going to be a tough finish. Going into the last day, finish positions third through sixth were up in the air, spread across only four points. Being so close it would be anybodys guess.

The final ice race was very fun but Paul Eklund was so much faster than everybody that all cars got the 10 point maximum penalty. That was somewhat of a relief for Eric and Steve since they find the ice racing most challenging. With everybody getting a max score it meant that the ice racing would not impact their position. Eric was third fastest on his first run at the ice race and had the ‘prettiest’ run, doing a perfect controlled slide around the spectator end.

Results were kept secret until the award banquet and the results were announced. Eric and Steve finished 2nd in class I and 6th overall. Their hopes of a final-day victory were dashed. Jim and Dan finished 3rd in class I and 8th overall, quite happy after their trouble with the WRX alternator. Rob and Nick finished third in class III and 9th overall. Rob and Nick relished their three victories in the non-studded tire class at all ice racing venues.

TeamD took second place in the team trophy competition. Subaru Challenge Driving took the trophy home. Third place team was Mitsubishi (car 5, 8, and 13). Contrary to earlier reporting, BMW was not declared as a team, lacking a rookie car.

Here are the full results as presented at the awards banquet:

NOTE: THESE HAVE BEEN SUPERCEDED

 1.   Car #1   Ahearns, Schneider, Webb (class II) with 47.5 points
 2.   Car #3   Carlson, Joy, Kraushaar (class II) with 56 points
 3.   Car #4   Eklund, Rounds, Reid, (class III) 76.2 points
 4.   Car #10 Wallace, Hightower, Carozza, (class I) 82.3 points
 5.   Car #2   Kraushaar, Engstrom, Richardson, (class II) 85.7 points
 6.   Car #7   Horst, Willey (class I) with 87.4 points
 7.   Car #8   Bornhop, Kott, (class III) 242 points
 8.   Car #11 Hogan, Comden with (class I) 392.1 points
 9.   Car #6   Dunn, Marcuse, (class III) 465.5 points
10.  Car #9   Wright, Fuhrman, (class II) 724 points
11.  Car #16 Brown, Morris, (class I) 751.1 points
12.  Car #14 Weaver, Weaver, (class III) 1024.3 points
13.  Car #5   Elder, Elder, (class III) 1275 points
14.  Car #15 von Richthofen, Touring Class
DNF  Car #12 Miller, Duchene, Wood (class II) with 1336 points (donated parts to car #3)
DNF  Car #13 Gilland, Boyd (class II) with 1602 points (engine failure)