EVENING UPDATE: Iron Dog posts racer start times from Nome

(NOME, Alaska, REVISED 5 a.m. Feb 17 to reflect updated start order Feb. 16, 8 p.m.) – Eighteen Iron Dog teams spent the day in Nome on Tuesday, prepping their sleds for the roughly 1,600 miles separating them from the finish line. 

 After all the wrenching was done, and the on-the-clock garage times added to each team’s course totals, Team 5, Brett Lapham and Zack Weisz skipped ahead of Team 6, Brad George and Robby Schachle. Still, the two teams are running neck and neck, with just 6 minutes and 30 seconds separating them. Team 10, Chris Olds and Mike Morgan, with six wins between them, remain in third. All are Iron Dog veterans and some of the top racers in the field.

Team 5, Brett Latham and Zack Weisz, now have a small lead after on-the-clock garage work shuffled standings. They will be the first racers out from Nome at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 17. Photo: Geoff Crouse / Iron Dog

“Riders will leave beginning at 8 a.m., in the order of their current standings,” said Mike Vasser, Iron Dog interim executive director. “The work time in the garage counts as on the clock, so some of the standings shuffled around a little. They are all still really close together, though.” 

Racers will return to Big Lake, via what has become known as the Kotzebue Loop, a 375-mile route that debuted during the 2020 Iron Dog and is being run in the reverse direction this year. Racers will leave Nome, and upon reaching Koyuk, they will veer north, traveling through Buckland, Selawik, Kiana, Noorvik, Kotzebue and back through Buckland and Koyuk, before backtracking to Big Lake. 

“There’s a lot of racing to go – we’re 1,049 miles in so we’re not even halfway yet,” Vasser said. The racers have motivation to travel the route quickly too, he added. Nana Management Systems is offering up a $3,000 contingency prize for the fastest team around the Kotzebue Loop.

Last year, severe winter weather and ground blizzards slowed teams as they traveled the Kotzebue Loop. This year, however, the weather forecast is for mostly sunny skies, but it will be cold, predicted to be minus 10 or colder most days. 

 Schachle, of Team 6, said that’s just part of the competition. 

“Everybody has to run in the same weather so we all get the same ride,” he said. “Good weather does help, but it helps everybody so there’s no real advantage except that it’s not miserable. This year’s conditions, you couldn’t ask for better.”

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