Lower 48 racers eye that elusive ‘veteran’ status
This year’s Iron Dog Race boasts 11 racers from outside of Alaska. They hail from Colorado, Nevada, Wisconsin, Minnesota and New Hampshire. There’s even one from Puerto Rico. They comprise eight teams and make up more than one in 10 of the race field’s 60 competitors. Three are veterans; eight are rookies. One is the grandson of one of Polaris’ founding partners. One is racing with a past Iron Dog champion.
This group from the Lower 48 is a strong field of athletes. And they all have one goal in mind: complete the World’s Longest, Toughest Snowmobile Race in 2025.
Team 15 Kim Bergeron and JP Bernier leaving the chute in Iron Dog 2024. Photo: Heather Sottosanti
New Hampshire native Kim Bergeron is no stranger to the Iron Dog Race. He has completed six Expedition Class rides and is a long supporter of the race, donating the use of snowmachines and supporting one of the race checkpoints (Ophir). Back home in New Hampshire, he volunteers at the local, state, and international levels in such organizations as the New Hampshire Snowmobile Association and the International Snowmobile Congress, among others. Last year, he and longtime racing partner JP Bernier, also from New Hampshire, entered their first Pro Class race as Team 15 and came oh, so close to earning veteran status.
Just 206 miles from the finish, though, Bergeron sank his sled in the river outside of Tatina, and quickly realized their 2024 bid was coming to a premature end.
“As soon as I was exactly at the point when I knew I wasn’t going to make it (across the skip), I had the wherewithal to turn the machine off,” said Bergeron. “I had a wave of sadness, knowing this is realistically the end of the race.”
But what Bergeron also had was a sense of gratitude that at the halfway banquet back in Nome, he had paid particular attention to the Alaska Safe Riders presentation on water immersion self-rescue. Call it coincidence, luck, someone watching over him – he doesn’t know. But without that information fresh in his mind, the outcome could have been vastly different.
“I had that presentation in my head, and went straight to what I needed to do,” Bergeron said. “JP said, ‘I’m taking my rope out, getting ready for you,’ and I tried to swim, which in snowmobile gear is understandably difficult. But it worked.”
After their near finish this past year, Team 15 has a score to settle and will be back to complete what they started in 2025.
“We learned a lot this past race about better hydration, nutrition, a lot of things,” Bergeron said. “For us, it’s a duration thing where if we can run 12 to 13 hours a day without incident, we will feel successful. The Top 5 are running that distance in a third of that time, but if we can do that, we will have a much better chance of success.”
Team 22 arrives in White Mountain to refuel during the 2024 race. After scratching in the 2024 race, Trent Johnson is back, pairing with Tad Covault of Soldotna for the 2025 race. Photo: Melody Bergamaschi / Iron Dog group
Like Bergeron and Bernier of Team 15, Team 22’s Trent Johnson from Hayward, Wis., fell short of a finish in 2024. He raced with teammate Cole Sabin, also from Hayward, and they scratched out in Tatina after encountering insurmountable mechanical issues. For 2025, back with Tad Covault of Soldotna as his partner this time, Johnson is hoping to claim that elusive veteran status and see the race to its finish.
“Our goals are more obtainable,” Johnson said. “Last year it was to finish, ultimately, but we thought maybe in the Top 10. This year, it is just to finish and have fun. Everything else is gravy on top.”
For Lower 48 racers, the challenges of even getting to the starting line are daunting. Johnson said.
“It’s a financial burden,” he said. “The time gone from home, and your job, figuring out how to get your snowmobiles barged to Anchorage, and the logistics of figuring out someone to pick them up.
“It’s a challenge, but it can be done,” he added.
“You can’t deny that to being competitive is costly in our race,” said Mike Vasser, Iron Dog’s executive director. “Racers typically have two sleds each; one to practice, one to race. They take time from work to train, have expenses like fuel, oil parts, etc.
“Out-of-state racers have the same expenses plus costs of travel to and from the Lower 48 and additional housing costs that come with traveling,” Vasser added. “To help them reduce costs, in 2025 any out-of-state racer that finishes the race will earn a free entry into the 2026 race. It's just one way we’re working to make it more achievable for them to participate.”
Despite the added challenges, Johnson, like many other snowmobile racing enthusiasts from the Lower 48, is lured by Iron Dog’s reputation as the World’s Longest, Toughest Snowmobile Race.
“The challenging portion of it is what attracted me,” said Johnson, who also had completed one Expedition Class ride prior to entering the Pro Class. “And going to somewhere that I’ve never been before, and maybe overcoming some things I haven’t done. I like riding long distances, so the endurance portion of Iron Dog was a really big draw. Caine’s Quest comes the closest, but it is the still not even comparable.”
Iron Dog Race, Inc., is committed to making it more achievable for Lower 48 racers to come up to compete. And the Alaska racers who are nearby are always willing to lend a hand.
Roger Brown, Iron Dog Board of Directors treasurer and veteran racer, agrees that Alaskan racers are keen to lend a hand to those from out of state.
“When I first got involved, I was amazed at how much the Iron Dog community was willing to help,” he said. “Veterans have a habit volunteering their ‘secrets’ and hard-earned ‘tricks of the trade’ to see more people get involved and ultimately finish. It doesn’t matter if you are from a different part of the state, a different state or even a different country: The Iron Dog community is here, ready and willing to help out in any way possible.”
Team 30’s Kody Worley and Blake Elder, demonstrated their Alaska Iron Dog hospitality when helping Kim Bergeron recover after falling into a river. Their kindness paid off, as they both went on to earn veteran status — and this orange finisher Yeti gifted to each of the 2024 finishers.
Bergeron wholeheartedly agrees. When he sunk his sled during the 2024 race, Team 30’s Blake Elder and Kody Worley from Wasilla didn’t hesitate to help them out.
“I just have so much respect for them because Team 30 had never successfully completed the race, but they came out to help us back to the checkpoint,” Bergeron said. “I think that’s what this race is about.” (And karma was good to Team 30: They went on to successfully finish and gain veteran status.)
“We would want help if we were in that situation,” said Worley. “All the racers are great guys and friends.”
Johnson, too, credits past Iron Dog veterans such as Mark Tope and David Wagner for encouraging him to enter the Expedition Class in 2023 as a trial run before entering the Pro Class.
“When I started planning, I had talked to people before who had raced and they all advised instead of just jumping into the Pro Class, that the Expedition Class was a great precursor to what we would see on the Pro Class. And they were right. After that, it made me want to race Pro Class for sure.”
Alex Hetteen of Roseau, Minn., will be entering the Pro Class as a true rookie this year, with no Alaska racing experience. However, he comes with a family legacy of snowmachine racers and riders. The grandson of Polaris co-founder Allan Hetteen, he will be racing with Iron Dog veteran Eric Christensen of Centuria, Wis., as Team 45.
“My wife and I have always talked about the Iron Dog; it’s a bucket list item, but it’s very hard from down here to coordinate,” Hetteen said. Hetteen, who is an engineer at Polaris, has been racing in the Lower 48 for the last 12 years alongside his wife, Jill, who also races and works for Polaris. When Jill was asked to join the 2025 Ambassador Class ride as a representative sponsor for Polaris, Alex decided, why not join her and race the Pro Class.
Allan Hetteen passed away when Alex’s father was just 11 years old, in a tragic tractor accident, so Alex never knew him. But he has firm memories of his grandfather’s influence on the snowmobile industry.
“I heard lots of stories about his support of racing and how as the CEO of Polaris, he supported it from the business side, putting a focus on racing from the Polaris viewpoint. He attended a lot of the races that way.”
Meanwhile, the rest of the Hetteen family embraced the racing way of life.
“As long as I can remember, we have had snowmobiles,” Hetteen said. “We were always building and changing and modifying. My brothers, my uncles, my aunts – it’s a full family thing and it’s just a way of life.”
Hetteen said as an engineer for Polaris, he is going to be particularly interested in the sleds’ performance while racing this year. He is depending on Christensen, who completed his second Iron Dog Pro Class this year with Kris Kaltenbacher from Sparks, Nev., to lead the way. His experience in the Pro Class – and completing the Ambassador Class in 2022 – gives him knowledge of the course that only comes from being on it.
“I’m not too worried about the snowmmobile riding aspect of it,” said Hetteen, who is actively engaged in the race circuit in his area, including the I-500 and other races. “Being an engineer, I’m focused on the sled, the modifications, the lights and the tank, and all those extra things you have to add.”
What Hetteen knows he will need to master is the duration of the Iron Dog – the long days riding and the mental fog that often accompanies that fatigue.
“The I-500 is more of a sprint, three hours a day for two days,” he added. “Staying focused for that length of time, staying alert, and then the things like weather and conditions. The amount of attrition there is in this race, it’s just a challenge to finish. And that’s what we hope to do.”
“The purse in the 2024 race was just shy of $250,000 with almost $90,000 in contingency prizes; we paid back the top 10 teams,” Vasser said. “That’s got to be a motivating factor for racers in the Lower 48; I don’t know of any other race that has such a payout.”
At the time of publication, Iron Dog Board of Directors were notified of a new late entry team working to register for the Pro Class – rookies new to the race from the Lower 48, which would bring this year’s total to 13 Lower 48 racers. Stay tuned for news about that, and comments from the 2024 podium teams and other local riders as training season for the 2025 Iron Dog gains momentum!
Lower 48 racers in the 2025 Iron Dog Snowmobile Race
Team 13: Polaris: Dan Zimmerman, Niswa, Minn. and Bob Streiff, Trego, Wis.
Team 15: Polaris: Kim Bergeron, Dublin, N.H. and JP Bernier, Hancock, N.H.
Team 16: Polaris: Danielle Levine, Reno, Nev. (although originally from Alaska, racing with her father, Larry Levine of Anchorage)
Team 18: Polaris: Kris Kaltenbacher, Sparks, Nev. (racing with Austin Carroll from Fairbanks)
Team 21: Ski-Doo: Wes Selby, Grand Lake, Colo. (racing with Cory Davis from Soldotna)
Team 22: Polaris: Trent Johnson, Hayward, Wis. (racing with Tad Covault from Soldotna)
Team 45: Polaris: Eric Christensen, Centuria, Wis. and Alex Hetteen, Roseau, Minn.
Team 47: Polaris: Frankie Navarro, Puerto Rico (racing with Jeremiah Brewington from Wasilla)