Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

The Farthest North Racing Alliance is a grassroots club of 40-60 riders who race in Tanacross, Alaska in the southern part of the 49th state. According to Derek Bloom, the FNRA #3 plate holder for 2001, the group converges on an abandoned military air base, (which they dubbed Tanacross Raceway), four times a year to hold motorcycle road races.

“It’s about 250 miles away from everybody,” said Bloom, in a telephone call to Roadracingworld.com. “So we all go down there on Friday and set up the course. We put marks on the tarmac as to where the cones go. We use orange cones to mark the outside of the course and green cones to mark the inside. So when you’re riding, you look for the green cones.

“We race from nine in the morning until about seven at night, because it never really gets dark up here at night in the summer. The temperature can get up to the 90s in July and it usually only drops to the 60s at night. So the weather is usually pretty good. I think we’ve only been rained out once or twice in the last few years.

“The track is 3.5 miles with 36 turns. It’s actually pretty technical and safe. If you run off, you run off into miles of nothing.” One of the “handful” of Alaskan racer to ever venture outside of the state for racing, Bloom has also raced at Willow Springs, Firebird International Raceway and most recently at California Speedway.

The FNRA usually runs a 30-minute solo endurance, winner-take-all, dash-for-cash race on Saturdays followed by sprints on Sunday. “The classes are pretty much run-whatcha-brung,” said Bloom. “We have guys with Yamaha R1s and R6s, Suzuki GSX-Rs, a couple of Yamaha TZ250s and even a few old RD350s.”

Classes for Sunday sprints are 0-to-500cc, 501–650cc and 651-Open with Experts starting in the first wave followed by a second wave of Novices. Races are only three laps long.

“It’s starting to get more competitive,” said Bloom, who had returned to his home in Fairbanks, Alaska following a racing trip to last weekend’s FTA race in Fontana, California. “The core group of 15-20 guys are really starting to pay attention to how well they do. Plus we’ve been advertising a little and drawing in some G.I.’s from the military bases up here.”

For more information about the Farthest North Racing Alliance, call Derek Bloom at (907) 474 –9118, FAX (907) 474-0016 or go to www.angelfire.com/ak5/tanacross.

Farthest North Racing Alliance Race Series 2002 Schedule
6/8-9 Tanacross Raceway, Tanacross, AK
6/29-30 Tanacross Raceway, Tanacross, AK
7/27-28 Tanacross Raceway, Tanacross, AK
8/17-18 Tanacross Raceway, Tanacross, AK