4x4 enthusiasts to host annual event

WASILLA — It’s not often that online message board arguments yield something good, but the annual Alaska 4x4 Meet and Greet is the exception that proves the rule.

Event organizer Rob Corbisier said the first meet and greet was conceived a couple years back when, in the midst of heated online discussions about the sport, someone proposed a meeting.

“I bet if we all got together and had a barbeque we’d all get along fine,” was the sentiment, if not the direct quote, Corbisier said.

So they booked the Alaska State Fairgrounds. The event went great there for a couple of years, then one year the fair was already booked Father’s Day weekend. It was mostly a workshops-and-classes affair.

Corbisier said the group moved to the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry and it’s worked out great.

The museum, he said, has allowed the meet and greet to build an obstacle course, which has added a whole new dimension to the gathering. It’s no longer so much about classes as it is about the vehicles. The obstacle course draws all comers.

“It’s everything from stock vehicles to crazily built moose buggies,” he said.

The course is challenging and requires a good driver, Corbisier said. Last year, one of those buggies snapped a differential while stock vehicles made it through just fine.

It’s a weekend-long event, running Saturday and Sunday, Corbisier said, with T-shirts and raffles and all that good stuff.

“It’s kind of like a car show, but it’s not a car show,” he said.

Car shows draw people with cars you’d do better not to touch. That’s not the case here.

Museum director Sherry Jackson said members of the 4x4 club also are welcome to camp out at the museum on Friday and Saturday night.