UNALAKLEET, AK (February 15, 2021, 1:30 p.m.) – Reigning Iron Dog champions Tyler Aklestad and Nick Olstad, Team 7, have scratched from Iron Dog 38. 

This year’s race has not been kind to the pair, who ran into trouble on Day 1 and were forced to take an unplanned layover in Puntilla. With that problem resolved, Aklestad and Olstad then raced to catch up with the remaining 19 teams, and were doing just that until Monday afternoon. 

They left out of Galena this morning and were among a tight pack of racers bunched up on their way to Unalakleet. Their new issues appear to have happened somewhere between Unalakleet and Shaktoolik and the pair returned to Unalakleet to scratch. 

Unconfirmed reports blame the scratch on a punctured heat exchanger, but Team 7 was unavailable to confirm.  

“It’s too bad,” said Mike Vasser Iron Dog’s interim executive director. “They were making up some time today, that is for sure.” 

Also on Monday, Team 11, Eric Wellman and David Wagner, scratched in Galena.

Media Contact: Mike Vasser, Interim  Executive Director, Iron Dog Inc., (907) 312-6595  •  director@irondog.org