The #AlcanMINI team has been suffering from limited connectivity…and exhaustion! Here is an update and photos from Bobby Danger, Alcan MINI team member as they continue to compete in the Alcan 5000.
Reporting from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada. Somehow it’s day 6 already and I’m trying to play catch up. I thought they had the internet everywhere but we are finding that is not that case.
Day 5 was a long long transit drive day. A lot of the days consist of many miles of highway driving but that doesn’t mean its easy. Out here the roads are soft and the Big Rig traffic has made a mess of many of them.
We left Yellowknife around 8 AM heading back south towards the McKenzie River crossing. That’s a particularly rough stretch of road though it was far more enjoyable to drive it in the daylight hours than it had been in the twilight we had on our way north towards Yellowknife. Gas stations are few and far between and the station at the McKenzie was going to be our last for awhile. The fuel stops are a nice opportunity to get out of the car for a few minutes and we usually do driver changes as well.
From here we headed south a few miles then turned west heading to our destination that evening of Ft Nelson. We traveled with a group of cars including a Mitsubishi EVO, a Subaru WRX and a Porsche Cayan, but we soon found the EVO in our group had the shortest fuel range. They made a run for it but ended up on the side of the road to quickly drop some gas in and get themselves the last few miles to our next gas stop.
The MINi made it with fuel to spare and we have yet to dip into our 5 gallon can we carry on our rear tire carrier.
We arrived at our hotel that evening and had the regular drivers meeting where they talk to us about the next days TSD and transit sections giving us any notes and pointers we made need. Off to bed after that.
Day 6 started nicely with a short TSD rally straight from the parking lot of the hotel. Without going into too much detail about half way through we came to an intersection that didn’t appear on our route directions. Josh was navigating and with his capable reading skills he got us going in the right direction without a hitch. We quickly discovered many of the other teams did not fare so well. Suddenly we noticed several competitors cars playing catch up and traveling the wrong way. We stuck to our plan and managed to make our best overall TSD showing to date.
Josh is the brains our operation without a doubt!
After the TSD we regrouped in the hotel parking lot and headed off for another 600 miles transit that would carry us far north into the Yukon Territory. Not only did we cross the continental divide but we crossed from B.C. into Yukon, back into B.C. and back into Y.T. before we reached our destination in Whitehorse.
This was a long drive but it was without a doubt the most scenic to date. The Lakes and Rivers and Mountains we crossed and viewed along the way were increasingly breathtaking with every mile. We encountered our first Bison today and saw several singles or small groups but most impressive was a herd of about 50 that just travel down the side of the highway paying no mind to any of us.
We were fortunate enough to have enough time today to stop at the Liard Hot Springs and I braved the cold outside to take a swim. Its was just the right temperature and I could have stayed for hours. Unfortunately that wasn’t an option as even these transit days and sections have final destination times we have to meet.
There is a story here about how I l
ost the keys to the MINI at the Hot Springs but I can’t give everything away at once. I should have a video available soon covering that incident.
Special thanks to the Alcan MINI sponsors:
www.arcflashllc.com
www.facebook.com/alcanmini
www.facebook.com/hoonmotorsports
www.achtuning.com
www.braidwheels.com
www.tracksiderally.com
www.425motorsports.com
www.alcan5000.com
