Kotzebue eagerly awaits its hometown heroes
Team 12’s Chris Collins and Doug Wicken are Kotzebue’s hometown heroes. The community eagerly awaited their arrival on Wednesday during Iron Dog 2022. Courtesy Tom Stokes
The spirit of Iron Dog, the World’s Longest, Toughest Snowmobile Race, is thriving in the northern part of the Seward Peninsula. With Iron Dog 2022’s leaders just 25 miles outside of Kotzebue on Wednesday, the local radio station and television channel kicked off live coverage. Race fans began lining up outside the Nullagvik Hotel, and trucks parked along the bank for a birds-eye view, their engines running to keep them warm inside. A party-like atmosphere pervaded.
“Everybody is starting to come down to the beach in the same spot where we have been the last three years,” said Kotzebue checkpoint volunteer Paulette Scheurch. “You can see all these longtime racers talking about their old snowmachine races from years past. I can imagine what those conversations are like. There is a lot of laughing.”
At just after 4:06 p.m., Team 7’s Tyler Aklestad and Nick Olstad, who have led most of this year’s Iron Dog, blew in and out in fewer than five minutes – refueling and back on the trail before 4:10 p.m. With yet another winter advisory on the way, fans speculated: Are they trying to outrun the foul weather to come?
Team 12 at the Iron Dog 2022 Tech Inspection in Wasilla. Courtesy Megan Rollinger
The National Weather Service’s winter weather advisory was set to begin at 9 p.m. Wednesday and continue until noon Thursday. It called for blowing snow and light rain, an accumulation of up to 1 inch of snow or ice, and winds gusting up to 35 mph.
“There’s a lot of traffic on Front Street right now,” Scheurch said. “It’s beautiful out there, and you can see all the bumps, which is great. But it’s not going to stay that way.”
The amount of enthusiasm for Iron Dog in this region of Alaska is impressive. The Red Dog Loop, a 470-mile loop added to the traditional Iron Dog Race for the first time in 2020, includes the communities of Buckland, Selawik, Kiana, Noorvik and Kotzebue. The excitement of fans along this sections of trail is feverish, and children and adults alike flock to watch the action come through their towns. In Buckland, for instance, teachers pulled their kids out of class to greet the racers at their fuel stop.
Local racers – like Team 12’s Chris Collins and Doug Wicken of Kotzebue – are transformed into celebrities. In fact, Scheurch said, when their hometown boys show up – Team 4’s Jim Baldwin of Kiana and Steven Williamson of Noorvik among them – there will be fireworks to greet them.
“They don’t know that, but we will surprise them, and Kotzebue Electric Association is sponsoring it.”
Sponsors have stepped up to make sure their region is represented, said Bob Menne, Iron Dog’s executive director.
“The excitement level on the Red Dog Loop is so strong, the people and the sponsors are getting behind this in a big way,” Menne said.
Red Dog / Teck, in its first year of sponsorship, has fully embraced the racers, he said, covering fuel costs for all of the checkpoints along the Red Dog Loop.
“So that directly allows us to grow our purse, and grow the payout of the race, which will help us bring more racers,” Menne said.
Team 4, Jim Baldwin from Kiana, left, and Steven Williamson from Noorvik, work on their sleds in the garage in Nome. Courtesy Penny Olanna
Other major sponsors include the Nullagvik Hotel, which is housing racers and Iron Dog staff; the Northwest Arctic Borough, which helped purchase a checkpoint arch that adds to the race excitement; and NANA, whose cash donations help pay for trail grooming and marking along the loop.
“We can’t wait to grow these relationships over the years,” Menne said. “They are crucial to us putting on a good race.”
At around 5:30 p.m., Ambassador Team 77 sweep Roger Brown arrived to the team’s final destination. Unlike the other Expedition Class riders whose trip ended in Nome, Team 77 continued through to Kotzebue, spreading Iron Dog goodwill.
“It was an overwhelming success,” Brown said. “The welcome we got all along the Red Dog Loop has been amazing. Buckland had 100 kids out there, and Selawik had like 65 people.”
Team 4, Jim Baldwin and Steven Williamson, race across Big Lake at the start of Iron Dog 2022. Courtesy Heather Sottosanti
Red Dog / Teck is sponsoring the Red Dog Loop.
One Ambassador Team member, Crystal Johnson from Kiana, got an especially big welcome.
“When we got to Crystal’s home town, they went nuts,” Brown said. “It was like a parade going through town. People were lining the streets, it was a beautiful 25 degrees and no wind. They were out enjoying themselves.”
Iron Dog 2022 currently has 19 teams still in the running from its original 28-team roster. Team 25 rookies Trevor Helwig and Geoff Crouse were the latest to scratch, today in White Mountain, almost 1,100 miles into the race.
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