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Expedition League Begins with Ukatak

Rob / 26.02.2004

The first race in the new Expedition Racing League, Raid Ukatak, begins this weekend. Raid Ukatak was started by Canadian racer and race organizer Martin Nieto, who is the man behind the new League, a grand tour of 6 races spanning the globe.

All of them are 4/5 day races, with the exception of the new GeoQuest race in Australia in August, which will run for 6 to 10 days. The others in the league are Terra Incognita in Croatia (May), the German Quest Adventure Challenge (Sept.) and the new Terra Incognita Argentina which finishes the series in November.

The ERL has put together a package to encourage teams to support the series, and addressed the major issue of cost. All the entry fees include ground transport (to and from airports), so no vehicle rentals are needed, and all are unsupported races, which reduces costs considerably. There are also discounts of up to 20% on entry fees depending on how many ERL races a team enters. They are working on a major airline partnership which will allow teams to have extra luggage at no extra cost as well. (Terra Incognita Croatia and Ukatak already have these in place.)

T.V. coverage is a major part of the project too. They are planning a series of 26 minute highlight programmes to air on a weekly basis in over 40 countries and a documentary as well, aiming to give team sponsors as much exposure as possible.

For those who want to know more a free ERL CD with a 3 min. promotional video and a 17 min. pilot of the sport highlights series is available. Just email competitor@expeditionracingleague.com with your name, team name, country and postal address, and they’ll send one out to you.

There is also a video available on the ERL web site, but you’ll need Quicktime 6.0 before to run it. The site has lots more information about the series and all the races, and the option to enter the races online.

There is a limited entry for the first race, but then Raid Ukatak is perhaps the most extreme adventure race there is! Twelve teams will set off on the 500km course on Sunday 29th knowing that in previous races ice storms have pinned teams down and temperatures have dropped to –35C. We’ll be carrying daily coverage of the race, starting with a preview tomorrow.