RTG AlMex Daily Dispatch - FINAL - Flipbook - Page 14
day 6: Fort Nelson to Dawson Creek, 2 September 2023
photos: gerardbrown.co.uk
Keith and Norah Ashworth, 1927 Bentley 4½ Le Mans
Thomas Stern and Frank Bertram, 1972 Porsche 924
having our tickets punched, we ran down the 97 past the
Kwadacha provincial park teeming with bears, wolves
and lemmings towards the Time Control and lunch at the
Buffalo Inn in pink Mountain.
russ Smith and Jamie
Turner had arrived earlier
to set up the clocks and
checksheets. They had just
enough time to finish a bowl
of beef and barley stew before
roy and rachel Stephenson
arrived looking for help for
their Mustang’s steering wheel
that had recently detached.
roy had lashed things
together sufficiently to get
them into the car park before
quite literally handing things
over to the sweeps, leading
some to comment that, whilst
it’s a lovely car, the nut behind
the wheel needed sorting out.
The second regularity, along a 30km chunk of Gundy
road, managed to be both slightly muddy and bone dry.
Choking dust made it a difficult section and loose gravel
made sticking to the average speed tricky. However, the third
regularity alongside Inga lake was slightly less demanding,
nonetheless the crews needed to be on their mettle as the
dirt road rose and fell through the thick woodland.
once out of the trees there was a quick blast down the
highway to the northern lights raceway. part airfield, part
dragstrip, according to TJ the facilities manager, “the coolest
event ever just happened here”. More used to jet aircraft
and drag cars, the ‘RtG run what you brung rallycross’ test
gave them something to add to their social-media pages.
from here it was straight down the 97 to the night halt
and first rest day. other than the loose steering wheel over
lunch, today’s mechanical issues seemed to be confined to
fluid management. Steve and ruth lambert’s ford is leaking
oil but the feeling is that as long as he keeps an eye on it, all
will be fine. Jim Gately’s Cadillac is losing a lot of water but
again, with regular top ups, it should be oK. Ivan pusnik and
Boris Gruzman’s Saab’s turbo mysteriously lost its cooling
fluid late last night so, just as the rest of us were tucking
into our beds, Jamie Turner and russ Smith were tackling a
complicated plumbing job. Their efforts meant the car made
it through today without further incident.
Tonight, we’re in dawson Creek at Mile Zero of the Alaska
Highway. A significant point at the end of our first week
of rallying which, unofficially at least, ends the northern
chapter of the Alaska to Mexico Marathon.
Brian and Catherine Scowcroft, 1936 Chevrolet Fangio Coupe
www.rallytheglobe.com