Sprint Championships

[Last TR]

We're in the midst of our winter carnival, the Anchorage Fur Rondy (or Fur Rendezvous.) So we went to the World Championship Sled Dog Races yesterday and today. Three 25-mile sprint races over three days. Beautiful sunny weather, if a bit chilly. It's a real mid-winter mood lifter. Unfortunately, we no longer have the Rondy Grand Prix, which was held on city streets near downtown Anchorage. There used to be a guy who raced a Corvette-powered TR7.

Ken
Anchorage, Alaska

1980 TR8, 1973 TR6, 1965 Volvo PV544, 1958 MGA, Jeep Cherokees

[FI Spyder]

I've watched the Iditarod dog sled race on TV for a long time. Between that and Ice Pilots NWT it keeps me well pleased I live on Vancouver Island.[8D]

This morning I woke up to snow on the balcony (for the fourth time this winter)! Screw global warming.[:(!]


TR7 Spider - 1978 Spitfire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - Yellow TCT

[Last TR]

All it takes is a dark rainy February weekend in the Pacific Northwest to remind me that there are worse things than snow!

Ken
Anchorage, Alaska

1980 TR8, 1973 TR6, 1965 Volvo PV544, 1958 MGA, Jeep Cherokees

[Hasbeen]

Ken, do those things under steer, or over steer.

Looks like fun, at least on a sunny day.

Hasbeen

[Last TR]

Hasbeen,

They don't steer much at all, as far as I can see. One of the faster mushers was disqualified Saturday after running over a slower musher and then punching him for not getting out of the way. Kinda like NASCAR.

I think it would be fun on a sunny day without other teams on the trail. Like auto racing though, I'll probably remain a spectator.

Ken
Anchorage, Alaska

1980 TR8, 1973 TR6, 1965 Volvo PV544, 1958 MGA, Jeep Cherokees

[jrich4411]

Interesting.... Here in Laconia NH we just had the "World Championship Sled Dog Derby" just 2 weeks ago. I guess we must live in different worlds!

'80 DHC
Chevy V8 up front
Ford rear end down back
Lucas wiring all over

[Bendder]

Brings back many memories.

I grew up in a sledding family. My parents were breeders of Siberian Husky sled dogs, Polartic Kennels. I started racing when I was just 5yrs old with one dog and a mini sled. Out about 300' where a parent would help us turn around and back to the finish line. It was great fun! My older brother got to race a bit more than I did running sprints of 3 and 5 miles with 3 and 5 dog teams while my dad generaly ran in the 7 and nine dog runs. The largest teams we ran for distance had as many as 16 dogs. I remember coming home from school and hitching up a team after a snow storm in Toronto Canada (back when there used to be much more snow there in the winter) and running down the middle of the street with a dog team!! believe me we would get some very strange looks. My brother and I made a few bucks too stopping with a large team and pulling people's cars out of the snow bank after they triied to get into their driveway's and getting stuck. People never would believe we could pull them out with 7 or 8 dogs. we almost always got 10 or 15 bucks a pull.

One thing I don't miss about it though is picking up all that dog s--t. I shoveled more than my fair share of it!! Taught us what responsability was though and I am thankfull to my parents for giving us such great memories.



Mark
1977 TR7 FHC
1978 TR7 FHC
1980 TR7 DHC
1980 Rover SD1 4.0L

[Last TR]

jrich,

Yes, we clearly live in two different worlds! "World this" and "world that" does get a bit overused. The Rondy had mushers from Canada, so it is at least an international event...

Ken

Ken
Anchorage, Alaska

1980 TR8, 1973 TR6, 1965 Volvo PV544, 1958 MGA, Jeep Cherokees

[FI Spyder]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Last TR</i>

All it takes is a dark rainy February weekend in the Pacific Northwest to remind me that there are worse things than snow!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I've spent the first 20 years of my life in Manitoba with getting stuck in snow, shoveling out 100's of yards of side road to get to main road, months of horse and cabooseing into town/school because even the snowplows couldn't get through, shoveling stooks out of snow banks because of early snows so cattle can be fed, 40 below's, having Winnipeg (otherwise known as Winterpeg) shut down because the only thing moving in the whole city is by snowmobile, enough to last me a life time.

Yes I remember the loud crunching of snow as you walk on it when it's 40 below and the snow at that temp sparkling at night in the light of the yardlight like millions of diamonds but those childhood memories can remain that, memories.

To each his own I guess.[:p]


TR7 Spider - 1978 Spitfire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - Yellow TCT

[Last TR]

Thankfully it never gets to minus forty here in Anchorage. It was about zero (fahrenheit) this morning and above 20 this afternoon. Though we haven't had the Rondy Grand Prix on the streets of Anchorage for a few years, the Alaska Sports Car Club still does winter racing on a frozen lake near here.



Ken
Anchorage, Alaska

1980 TR8, 1973 TR6, 1965 Volvo PV544, 1958 MGA, Jeep Cherokees