Going the Distance

© John Isenberg

“The appeal is the distance and the destination. It’s a great excuse to come to Alaska.” In case you’ve ever wondered why someone would want to ride a motorcycle on 5,000 miles of bad road, there’s at least part of your answer, straight from John Isenberg, who just ran in the ALCAN 5000.

Isenberg, a program manager with AT&T, is also the manager of Iron Mountain Racing, which has put up three entrants in this nine day race that started in Kirkland, WA, on Aug. 16 and wrapped up in Anchorage, AK, on Aug. 24. Open to entries with any kind of street-legal vehicle, this year’s race has 16 motorcycles and 8 cars. The general assumption is that the bad economy is responsible for the lower number of entries than normal. The field in this biennial event is usually in the 40 to 50 range.

Not a speed event, the ALCAN 5000 is an endurance race coupled with timing. The objective is to run the competitive portions, or “tests,” at a speed that will carry you past each checkpoint at precisely the designated time. For every second early or late, the competitor gets one point, and the object is to collect as few points as possible.

In addition to the tests, there are the transits, which is often where endurance comes in. On Sunday, for example, contestants had to cover 400 miles just to reach the start of the first test for the day.

© John Isenberg“If you’re late to your start then you start racking up seconds,” says Isenberg.

As a team as well as individually, Iron Mountain Racing has been doing well. As of Saturday night, their car team, Oliver Andrews and Kacee Callahan in a Subaru Impreza, were in third place overall. Isenberg, on a KTM 990S Adventure, had just moved into first place in his over 799cc unlimited division. And Dan Watt, on a BMW GS Paris Dakar, was in second in the Seat-of-the-Pants division. That division does not use the GPS and rally computer that other divisions use. They rely solely on their watches, speedometers, and odometers.

Watt also had a “significant off” on Saturday, as Isenberg put it, that resulted in a two-inch hole in his valve cover.

“We ended up going the JB Weld route,” said Isenberg Sunday night. “Used a soda can and a bunch of putty. After 400 miles today it seems to be holding. The patch weeps a bit but nothing so bad that we can't keep up with it. What really is cool is that we were able to get Dan back into the rally. He had a good test today and has taken the lead in his class.”

While each entrant competes individually, there is also a team trophy. A team must consist of at least three entrants. The individual tallies for each are averaged to arrive at the team score.

With a lot of rain, some hail, and even some snow, the weather has not been kind to the competitors this year. So why, really, do people subject themselves to this? Isenberg offers three reasons, at least for himself. One, the sense of adventure that comes with these type of races, a real high sense of adventure. Two, he has a strong competitive spirit and sees ALCAN as an excuse to compete. Three, camaraderie. "The friendships that are made tend to be long lasting and I expect that to be true of this event as well. I have met folks that I think will be friends and people that I stay in touch with long after the event," he says.

Plus, the scenery is spectacular.

“There were some places where you just really, really felt you were in the middle of nowhere,” says Isenberg. “We've seen porcupine, we've seen beaver, we've seen moose, wolf, grizzly bears, black bears. The beauty of the country up here is just magnificent.”

Get it? Please don’t throw me in that briar patch.

Note: As this is written, the ALCAN 5000 is still in progress. We will update this space with the final results as soon as possible after the finish.

Update: ALCAN 5000 Final

The Iron Mountain Racing team ended the ALCAN 5000 with mixed results, but did very well for a first-time team, taking third place. Dan Watt won his SOP division, and Oliver Andrews and Kacee Callahan took second in their car class, plus third overall. John Isenberg had mechanical issues on the last day and dropped to third in his class, and 11th overall.