Sebring, FL – August 30, 2018
Sep 5th, 2018 by rallyadmin
This circus is over and everyone is headed home or at least elsewhere. It’s 18 months, more or less, until the next Alcan, the winter Alcan5000 in February, 2020. People are excited and saying they’re going to be in the next one. But first they have to go home and rest after this one.
Jim and Colin are ready to leave and waiting for the final equipment swaps, tie downs and adjustments to be made. Slowly the cars file out. The bikes are moved to the transporter who will bring them to Seattle. Others, the real moto addicts, just pack up, get on their bikes and head south. Finally, the parking lot is empty and the shuttle bus has taken the last people to the airport. What a couple of weeks.
I have a flight out in the afternoon. I’m heading to Sebring, Florida for a sportscar race on Saturday. The flight is one of those “you can’t get there from here” flights. Fairbanks to Seattle to Cincinnati to Tampa. Then meet my racecar partner, Ken, and our third driver, John, in Tampa and drive the final 3 hours to Sebring.
It’s a long over night flight with long layovers in Seattle and Cincy. But I’ve treated myself to a first class points seat. Get a few hours of sleep on each leg of the flight. And feel surprisingly good when I meet up with Ken and John.
We get to the track and register for the race. Drop the trailer. Head for the Wild Turkey, now the Wild Turkey Tavern, for a dinner of fried gator tail, chicken wings and shrimp. And beer. Lots of beer. Then the hotel and a good night’s sleep.
Tomorrow we’ll make some changes to the car’s axles which have been failing under race conditions and causing us to DNF. We think we have a solution but we won’t know for sure until the 6 hour race on Saturday. Generally and easy day. Except for the heat and humidity. Quite the change from Alaska and northern Canada.
Obi-wan
