With finish line on the horizon, Teams 7 and 10 battle for dominance

Team 7 Tyler Aklestad and Nick Olstad arrive in McGrath at 8:04 p.m. Thursday for a much-deserved layover during the 2022 Iron Dog Race. The 2020 Iron Dog champions are this year’s current leaders. Courtesy Renae Egrass

Team 7’s Tyler Aklestad and Nick Olstad continued their dominance on Thursday, staying in the lead but with Team 10 hot on their heels. The two teams made an impressive 700-mile-plus run from Nome to Unalakleet on Tuesday, pushing beyond Kotzebue and making a run inland. As of 6:45 p.m., the two teams were within an hour of Ophir, and just 340 miles from the finish. 

 Those are, however, a rough couple of hundred miles. As anyone familiar with the Iron Dog knows, the trek across the Alaska Range then down through Southcentral Alaska can bring any number of challenges. 

 “They basically rode 700-some miles in 13 hours, and the terrain out there on the coast can allow them to do that,” said Scott Davis, one of Iron Dog’s most decorated competitors. “Those guys have trained hard and this is within their skills. I’m sure it was a calculated decision.”

 Davis, who competed in the first Iron Dog in 1984 when it was called the Iron Dog Gold Rush Classic, then went on to win the race seven times between 1985 and 2007, said he is sure those front-running teams are not resting easy yet. Despite the widening margin between the front of the pack and the back, it only takes one slip-up for the scenario to change. 

 “And that area in the Alaska Range, with all those buffalo tunnels, deep snow, bumpy trail … it can get rough,” he said. 

 In the late 1990s, Davis said he and Mark Carr were in a similar situation. They made the call to race from Galena to Big Lake. It was tactical, and it paid off.

 “It was a 24-hour day, and you have to go from Ruby to McGrath, which is so bumpy, so unpredictable. None of it was fun,” he said. 

 When the two stood on the podium to accept their championship trophy, though, it was all worth it. 

 “The race continues to get elevated, and the more experienced guys are trying to separate themselves from the guys who are less prepared, have less experience,” he said. “This is what happens.”

 Jake Goodell, head timing official and Iron Dog board secretary, said Team 7’s and 10’s runs from Nome to Unalakleet is worth thinking about. By comparison and for the layman, think about driving to from Anchorage to Fairbanks – and back – in 13 hours, including stops for gas every 60 to 70 miles. 

 “The run from Nome to Unalakleet is approximately 702 miles,” Goodell said. “Team 10 did it in 13 hours and 8 minutes. Team 7’s running time was 12 hours and 33 minutes.”

  Team 10 averaged 53.5 mph, while Team & was at 56 mph, he added.

 If you factor in an average of 35 minutes total of refueling time at each of the checkpoints along the way, Goodell said each team would gain approximately 35 minutes. That bumps their average speed on the marathon run to almost 59 mph for Team 7 and 56 mph for Team 10. 

 At 8:04 p.m., Team 7 completed a more manageable day – Unalakleet to McGrath: 419 miles in a little less than 10 hours. Team 10 was just 50 miles behind them. There, the teams will layover and restart Friday morning. Teams will be held in Puntilla or Skwentna on Friday, for a scheduled finish into Big Lake, and the Menard Center in Wasilla, beginning at about noon Saturday.

Davis, watching the race while sitting in the sun, said while less than 400 miles remain, the race is far from over. 

 “You could run the most perfect race, and have something happen,” he said. “I know because it’s happened to me.

 “These teams are so fast, and they are so talented; the front runners are showing maturity. That comes eventually, and it’s showing now in all of them.” 

 At the back of the pack, Iron Dog is proving its identity as the World’s Longest, Toughest Snowmobile Race. Three more teams dropped from the race on Thursday. Team 4 and a local favorite on the Red Dog Loop, Steven Williamson of Noorvik and Jim Baldwin from Kiana scratched out in Kotzebue. Team 19 Chad Moore and Travis Temple pulled the plug in southbound Koyuk. Team 30, Kody Worley and Blake Elder, who weathered a big crash earlier in the race, made it all the way to Unalakleet southbound before ending their race two-thirds of the way through.  

Media Contact: Bob Menne, Executive Director, Iron Dog Inc., (907) 854-0097 or (907) 563-4414,  director@irondog.org      

Follow Iron Dog coverage at www.irondog.org and Iron Dog’s Facebook Page, https://www.facebook.com/IronDogSnowmobileRace