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Team Primitive Arctic
Challengers members
reach the Arctic
Circle, above. At
right, blowing snow
created an eerie
landscape on the
Dempster Highway.

Coopers Carry Winning Teams to Top of World
Teams riding on Cooper tires won two first-place awards and a second place overall as they
raced to the Arctic Circle and back in the 24th annual Alcan Winter Rally.
The 10-day, 4,850-mile event featured 24 vehicles and 55 contestants in an extreme driving

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adventure that started Feb. 16 in Kirkland, Wash., and ended Feb. 26 in Jasper, Alberta,
Canada. Mid-way through, contestants reached the Arctic Circle.
This year’s Cooper-sponsored three-vehicle team, Team Primitive Arctic Challengers,
consisted of Glenn Wallace and R. Dale Kraushaar in a Subaru Forester XT in Class II, Paul
Eklund and Kala Rounds in a Subaru forester XT in Class III, and Steve Perret and Kathryn
Hansen in a Subaru Impreza RS in Class III as the rookie team. Teams are required to havea rookie entry.
To participate in the adventure, contestants must prepare their vehicles and themselves towithstand some of the harshest winter conditions in North America. Each day, contestants
drive an average of 500 miles to make it to their next time-speed-distance checkpoint or ice
racing challenge. Tires are a critical component when preparing the vehicles for the rally
and ice racing stages.
This year’s team used Cooper Weather-Master S/T 2 tires. “The tires performed beautifullyon the ice racing stages and out in the middle of the frozen MacKenzie River and Arctic
Ocean,” said Paul Eklund of Primitive Racing. Paul set the fastest time on one of the ice
race segments.
Because of the extreme weather conditions, vehicles use a buddy system and stay in radio
contact, just to make sure no one gets stranded. “Timing fuel stops is a bit of an art andcontestants are encouraged to carry two gallons of gasoline for each vehicle. Alcan ralliers
have a saying, ‘never pass gas,’ and for good reason. This year we wouldn’t have made it
through the Cassiar without splashing fuel to make it the last 10 miles,” said R. Dale
Kraushaar.
The 2008 Alcan Winter rally entrants traveled the beautiful Cassiar Highway, raced on theYukon River, drove the dangerous Dempster Highway crossing the Arctic Circle, drove 80
miles down the MacKenzie ice highway and then 20 miles on the Beaufort Sea, part of theArctic Ocean, to the little village of Tuktoyaktuk, some 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle.
Then heading south through Dawson City and Whitehorse, they took a night dip under thestars in sub-zero temperatures at Liard Hot Springs, took photos at Milepost One of theAlaska (Alcan) Highway in Dawson Creek, and finished by driving the Bighorn Highway intoJasper National Park.
“The Arctic tests your endurance, but also reveals some of the most breathtakingly
beautifully desolate landscapes in the world,” said Glenn Wallace.
Glenn Wallace and R.Dale Kraushaar finished first in Class II and second overall; PaulEklund and Kala Rounds finished first in Class III and in sixth overall; and Steve Perret andKathryn Hansen finished second in Class III and 10th overall. In addition, Team Primitive
Arctic Challengers won the first-place Team Award.
Travel the adventure at www.challengedriving.com.
R. DaleKraushaarand Glenn
Wallacecelebrate
amilestone
at theArcticCircle.

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Page 3 of 4
At left, the Blackwater Road
offered stunning mountainscenery.

On the Cassiar Highway, drivers
traveled through dense forests.

On the MacKenzie River Ice
Highway, drivers found little
traction through a desolate
landscape.

© 2008 Cooper Tire & Rubber Company
Provided by Global Communications

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