It is the craziest automotive event you have likely never heard of. The Alcan Rally is a 5,000 mile sojourn into the arctic that combines elements of a Time Distance Event with challenges, special stages, and some competitive/precision driving as well. Our pal the rally ace Andrew Comrie-Picard will be getting after it on the Alcan 5000 with Brad Lovell and Chris Komar this year.
Komar is a rally and drifting veteran and Lovell is a veteran rock and desert racer who has the toughness to really be an asset to the team. While there are lots of different ways to attack the Alcan, these guys are doing it in an interesting fashion with a bone stock Jeep JK Rubicon that has been outfitted with BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2 tires (click the link to learn more about ’em). It sounds idiotic to say but the reality is that tires are a defining piece of equipment in this event because the road conditions vary wildly. You go from dirt and potentially jagged rocks in places to ice and snow in others. We can say as a point of fact that we’ve experienced those conditions with these tires and they handle the business well. Now our trial was not 5,000 miles but you get what we’re saying, right?
Back to the event. We caught up with ACP just after the driver’s meeting and he told us that the guys were excited and that precision was going to be the name of the game. “I’m going to be spending a lot of time in the passenger seat for this one,” he said. “There’s a ton of pretty advanced math that needs to be done to keep us on pace and to manage our speeds. It is pretty scary to think about how much work this is going to be to keep ourselves in the thick of it. Lovell and Komar are great drivers and we’re going to have a load of fun.”
The commitment to this event is massive. ACP said, “There will probably be about 30 entires this year and these people are hardcore. It is a must-week commitment to get to the starting point, attempt the event, and then get home. This is one of the most under the radar, crazy automotive events in the world.”
When we asked him about taking on the event in a stock Jeep with off the shelf BFG All-Terrain TA KO2 tires he didn’t miss a beat. “The Jeep Rubicon is an awesome truck as it rolls off the factory floor. We actually made it better with the KO2 tires because we’ll need to use all of their abilities on this trip, especially that three peak snowflake rating that they have for snow. This is Alaska after all,” he laughed.
You can follow the progress of the competitors at the link below!
Click here to learn more about the awesome (and insane) Alcan Rally
