AFTERNOON UPDATE: Front-runners crash, but the race is still on

Team 5, Zack Weisz and Brett Lapham, arrived in Galena as one of the top three teams. Weisz collided with Bryan Leslie of Team 14, and his sled windshield was one of the casualties. Photo: Dennis Falldorf / Iron Dog Facebook

(GALENA, Alaska, Feb. 18, 4 p.m.) – A collision on the trail rattled two of the top three teams today, but by 3 p.m. everyone was settled into Galena, eating food and cracking jokes. 

 As Doug Dixon, Iron Dog board of directors vice president said, this is just part of racing. 

 Team 14’s Bryan Leslie and Team 5’s Zack Weisz collided on the way into Galena while one was trying to pass the other – Dixon said he wasn’t sure who was doing the passing. 

 “It’s just one of those things, where a guy’s making a pass, and another one turned back too quick, and it just happened,” said Dixon, from where he was helping with checkpoint duties in Galena. “But they’re feeling better; they’re off the clock and got some food in them. Bryan wasn’t pointing a finger, and Zack wasn’t pointing a finger; it’s all good. Bryan’s down at the clinic getting his shoulder checked out, but he thought it was going to be OK.”

 For spectators glued to Iron Dog’s tracking app, though, speculation ran wild. For awhile Team 5 stopped moving on the GPS monitors, and Team 14 forged ahead. Was anyone hurt? Broken down? The computer screens can only provide so much data, so on one was sure. 

 Dixon said both teams will need to do a little sled work to repair the damage caused by the crash, but fortunately, that’s not too serious either.

 “Team 5 is going to need a windshield, so they are going to Doc Erickson’s rig to strip some stuff off of it,” Dixon said of Wade Erickson’s snowmobile, which is still parked in Galena following his scratch from the Expedition Class race. Erickson has served as the Iron Dog COVID doctor during the race, and now appears to be a parts guy as well. 

 Team 14’s windshield has a crack too, but just on the side flare,” Dixon added. “They’ll probably just leave it be.” 

 Meanwhile Team 6, Robby Schachle and Brad George, skirted ahead of the fray without any problems, arriving in Galena at 1:48:53 p.m., a full five minutes ahead of Leslie and his teammate Casey Boylan. As of 3 p.m. Teams 6, 14 and 5 were the only ones in town, although Team 10, Chris Olds and Mike Morgan, were expected by 3:30 p.m. 

 Media Contact: Mike Vasser, Interim  Executive Director, Iron Dog Inc., (907) 563-4414  •  director@irondog.org