Yukon 800 is this Friday and Sat.

[CSR4C]

Dvd

Dale,
When you get the DVDs ready, I would like to get one.

Darrell Sorensen
13307 Ave. 22 1/2
Chowchilla CA 93610

I think Steve Johnson, Dave Mason & Ed Hearn would make a good team for next years race.

[14-H]

Dale***
I think Steve Johnson, Dave Mason & Ed Hearn would make a good team for next years race.

Dave and Steve: I get to hold the gun! Ed.

[Dave M]

I am In

I am in ! Any Rules about carrying more than one Shotgun ??...

Artic Racer, is there ever a team looking for a rider ?

[DeanFHobart]

Dvd

Dale,

I'd Like One Too. Let Me Know When It's Ready.... I'll Send You My Address.

Thanks, Dean Hobart

[Arcticracer]

Y800

Hi guys, I am looking for another race video that I have not found yet, but the first DVD is done, a full 2 hours. Dave M, yours is in the mail. There are often teams who could use another crew member, but there is the training and experience factor. Most of the teams and team members are Alaska Natives, who grew up in the villages. They have run thousands of miles on the rivers working at fish camp, hunting, or just plain transportation remember no roads..... The river is their highway. Intimate knowledge of the river is needed. That being said, the other requirement for a ride is size. Women often get a place on crews, and captains like little people on their boat, especially if the captain is.... well.....chunky.

The legendary Mike Jones was interested some years back in a ride he never made it up though.

Dean, nice to hear from you again, please send me a PM or Email and I will send you one also. I am going to take my video camera to the race site tomorrow and get some fresh video of the gathering, and start of the race. Looks like a good field, up to 12 boats.

I am going to the weigh-in and drivers meeting tonight, where they will draw starting positions etc.




Yukon 800 field to gather tonight

Staff Report
A field of as many as 12 riverboat racers could be at the starting line on Saturday morning when the 2006 Doyon Yukon 800 Marathon riverboat race gets under way at the Chena Pump Campground.

However, one of those who won't be on the river is defending champion and seven-time winner Harold Attla, who will take this year off to make sure that the remodeling business he started last summer is running smoothly.

"I decided back in March that it was time to take a little break," Attla said Thursday evening. "It's still going to be a very competitive race as there is a lot of new equipment and boat designs out there and it all looks pretty good to me."

Another change this year is that the start and finish will be conducted at the Chena Pump Campground and there will not be any ceremonial start or finish at Pike's Landing. Traffic on the Chena River was the main consideration in not having the ceremonial starts on the Chena River.

The weigh-in and draw for starting positions is scheduled for 7 tonight at the Pump House Restaurant.

The race gets under way at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Chena Pump Campgrounds. Upon reaching the midway point at Galena on Saturday evening, racers will lay over until 6 a.m. on Sunday when they begin the return trip to Fairbanks at 6 a.m. Sunday and the winner is expected to reach the finish line at Chena Pump Campground sometime between noon and 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Five-time champion Bill Page is expected to be back on the river this year as is 1996 winner Tommy Kriska.

Others expected to be in the field are Albert Attla, Tom Huntington, Gilbert Huntington, Clinton Huntington, A.J. Dick, Milton Moses, Arnold Marks Jr., Brian Cruger, Tyler Huntington and Hank Captain.

Race coordinator Audrey Jones said the Fairbanks Outboard Association has budgeted $12,000 for the race, but that could increase if a full field of 12 racers makes it to the starting line.

For more information on the race, go to www.yukon800.com.

[14-H]

Race Strategy

Is there any advantage to getting to the layover point first? I mean, if everybody starts again the next day, what's the advantage of running fast on the first leg? Or is it overall time that determines the race? Ed.

[Lights]

I think Steve Johnson, Dave Mason & Ed Hearn would make a good team for next years race.

I think Steve's new Zorkin DMR is almost LOOOOOOOOOONG enough to run in that race.

[Arcticracer]

Latest news

Field of 11 to start Yukon 800

By DANNY MARTIN, Staff Writer

Milton Moses Jr., was surprised after he looked at the small piece of paper he pulled from a cap for the Yukon 800 Marathon riverboat race draw for starting positions on Friday night outside of the Pump House Restaurant.
The 32-year-old captain of Rampart Rampage drew the No. 1 position among 11 entries for the 46th edition of the out-and-back race from Fairbanks to Galena.

Moses made a comedic gesture of putting the number back in the cap, but he held on to the paper.

"Actually, I kind of wanted to draw last,'' said Moses, a five-time entrant who calls Tanana and Rampart home. "You just get to see everybody and nobody passes you.''

Moses and his crew of Hank Sommer and Eileen Newman-Moore will depart at 11 a.m. today at the confluence of the Chena and Tanana Rivers, next to Chena Pump Campground.

The boats will be lined up single file and leave in two-minute increments for the halfway point in Galena. The racers depart Galena Sunday morning, starting at 6, and the winner is scheduled reach the finish line at the campground between noon and 1 p.m.

The start and finish of the race took place at Pike's Landing for many years but Audrey Jones, race coordinator, said they were moved this year to the campground because of heavy recreational traffic in the vicinity of Pike's. The campground is about four miles from the Pump House.

"We have speedboats that go 50 miles per hour just to stay on step,'' said Jones, "and there's canoes, recreational vehicles and Jet Skis. There's just too many recreational vehicles and the corners (on the Chena) are too tight for our boats to maneuver safely. There's even airplanes.

"There's more room (on the river at the campground) to move.''

Bill Page, who placed second last year to Harold Attla and won the race in 2004, received the No. 2 spot in his 36th entry in the race. Attla, a seven-time champion, didn't enter this year because he wanted to focus on a remodeling business that he started last summer.

"Oh man, there are some boats out there that are ready to go,'' Page said with a laugh while he sat a picnic table and filled out his race application.

The 70-year-old, five-time winner was ready for good conditions on the course.

"I just want the water to be calm," Page said. "This is the first year I've run without running the river (before the race).''

In past years before the race, Page took a practice round trip from Fairbanks to Galena. He didn't do one this year because he was working on another boat.

The racers are expected to encounter choppy conditions today on the Tanana and Yukon rivers, according to race marshall Don Moses.

"There's pretty good waves so far,'' said Moses, who competed in 30 Yukon 800's from 1968 to 1999. "They've (racers) just got to pull back their throttles a little bit so they don't bang up their boats."

Page had an unexpected challenge on Friday about five hours before the drawing, as he discovered a leak in the gas tank of his boat, Jen Jen.

Page said he planned to use an epoxy to seal the two-inch, hairline-wide leak, and he and his crew planned to go as fast as safely possible on the course.

"Once you get in the water, it takes a lot of stress off the gas tank," he said, "and you're not as liable to leak any as you are to gain some. I've got good water filters, too.''

Gilbert Huntington, captaining My Savior's Sliver, drew the third starting position, followed by Tom Huntington in Union Pride/Miss Kay Kay and Albert Attla in Phat Albert. Attla was a crew member of Harold Attla last year.

Close Enough, captained by Arnold Marks Jr., is the sixth boat and Tom Kriska's Miss Nay Nay Rose heads out at No. 7. Kriska and Page are the only former champions in this year's race. Kriska won the event in 1996.

AJ Dick and his crew on Miss Ivory Jacks II will start their engine as the No. 8 boat, followed by Tyler Huntington and his boat, The Edge of Nowhere. Shadows of the Koyukuk is seeded 10th and captained by Clinton Huntington, and Hank Captain and his boat, Hughes Blues, will be the last boat to head to Galena today.

The purse is $12,000 and Jones said the winner is scheduled to receive $4,200.