Anchorage Daily News

Thursday, May 11, 2000

World road rally

HERE THEY come, heading our way, those wonderful men in their internal combustion machines. Forty-two cars. Forty-two drivers. Forty-two navigators. All in the middle of an Around the World in 80 Days road rally that began in London 11 days ago, and which will touch down in Anchorage on June 10 for a two-day layover before the competitors set off for New York City.

Talk about thrills. Talk about Tony Curtis, in a leather helmet, goggles and scarf, driving a high-powered roadster across Europe in one of Hollywood's most enduring comedy classics.

No, Tony Curtis is not a driver in this globe-girdling motor car rally. And the automobiles in this race aren't vintage open cockpit cars with high wheels, rumble seats and stacks of spare tires strapped to the back bumper. They're expensive, finely tuned motor cars - the kind you'd love to have, if you could afford one.

During the two-day layover here, all of Anchorage will have the opportunity for up-close-and-personal looks at all the automobiles and to mingle with the drivers, their navigators, and the support staff that accompanying some of the entrants.

From its London start, the rally has taken the drivers to Paris, and from there the race is on to Beijing, China, which will be the jumping off place for Anchorage.

According to local sponsors, all of the automobiles will be airlifted from Beijing to Anchorage aboard a huge former Soviet military cargo plane, arriving here about an hour before the people involved in the race land on a separate flight. It will be a Saturday, and that night all the participants are scheduled to be hosted at a public reception planned at the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum at Lake Hood. It will be a $20-a-person affair, with proceeds going to Hospice of Anchorage.

On Sunday, if all the plans work out, the automobiles will be on display on the Delaney Park Strip, with their driving teams on hand to meet and talk with auto fans who stop by. On the next day, the 12th, it will be off to New York, up the Glenn Highway and overland via the Alaska Highway to the East Coast, and another air-taxi trip back to Europe and the conclusion of the race.

Putting all the Anchorage part of this program together has been something of a last-minute, holy-smoke-here-they-come affair for local auto buffs. Cheryl Babbe and other members of the Arctic Alaska Region of the Sports Car Club of America have been doing the yeoman work of pulling all the details together.

Through their efforts, Anchorage is going to get a first-hand look at some colorful people and their extraordinary automobiles, and to spend a couple of days basking in the glow of an international sports spectacle.


Copyright © 2000 The Anchorage Daily News

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