(BIG LAKE, Feb. 19, 6:30 p.m.) – Iron Dog Team 6, Robby Schachle and Brad George, rode down the finish chute at just after noon on Saturday thinking they had buttoned up second place. 

 It wasn’t until they came across the finish line that they figured it out. 

 “I still can’t believe it, I’m like, ‘is this a dream?’ said George, all smiles at the finish line. “We came across that line and everybody’s screaming ‘you did it,” ‘you did it,’ ‘you did it,’ and I’m thinking, ‘yeah, we’ve gotten second before,’ and they said, ‘no, you won!’ I still can’t believe it.”

 Team 14, Casey Boylan and Bryan Leslie, who had a nearly 30-minute lead leaving out of Puntilla this morning, needed a clean run. Barring injuries or breakdowns, they felt they could hold onto their lead and claim the first-place finish. 

 But that’s not what happened. While Team 14 struggled with locked-up engines and broken tow ropes on a windswept side trail they mistook for the race trail, Team 6 rode on by, not knowing they had passed the leaders, or that the leaders were having any problems at all.

 Team 14 persevered despite the brutal blow delivered to them just 30 miles from the finish.

 “The weather made the trail really hard to see,” Leslie said. “When Team 6 passed us, we were on two different trails.” 

 According to Casey Boylan’s father, Roger Boylan, the problems began when his son’s engine locked up just outside of Yentna Station. Leslie quickly attached a tow rope to Boylan’s sled and began towing him, until Leslie’s engine also stopped. Now at a standstill, they rushed to get one of the machines started, eventually getting Boylan’s to fire up. The towing resumed until the tow rope broke, which they also had to fix. They came across the finish line with Boylan’s sled pulling Leslie’s with a neon green tow rope.

 Team 14 arrived at 12:55:08 p.m., followed by third-place finishers Team 10, Mike Morgan and Chris Olds, at 1:13:50 p.m. The three teams shared the podium at a photo shoot amid music and fans who milled about the frozen lake in negative temperatures made worse by a frigid wind. Team 10 was the only team to repeat on the podium. Last year, they placed second to Team 7 Nick Olstad and Tyler Aklestad. For two consecutive years before that, Team 10 stood atop the podium in the No. 1 spot and remain some of the winningest Iron Doggers of their time. 

 The twists in this year’s Iron Dog kept fans riveted from the first day, when the Team 7 defending champions ran into mechanical trouble less than a hundred miles into their race. They had to take an unplanned layover in Puntilla to fix the problem, then raced north within 45 minutes of the leaders, only to have a serious breakdown that punctured the heat exchanger in Olstad’s sled. They scratched, northbound, in Unalakleet.

 From there Team 6 took the lead, being briefly passed by Team 5, Zack Weisz and Brett Lapham, after Nome, until Weisz and Leslie collided outside of Galena. That slowed Team 5 down, pitting teams 14 and 6 at the front. Over the last two days, Team 14 lengthened its gap, but knew that Team 6 wouldn’t give in easily.

 Both teams, alternately, talked about how the Iron Dog is not a race to call early. It isn’t won until both racers cross the finish line in Big Lake – a lesson achingly experienced today. 

“You know,” said Tyler Aklestad, who stood on the sidelines in Big Lake today, having ridden from his cabin to cheer on the finishers, “that’s how this race goes. They’ve had a good race. And there’s always next year.”

As of 6 p.m., all but one of the 14 remaining teams in this year’s Iron Dog 38 were in Big Lake. Team 21, Israel and Joseph Hale, were the 13th team to arrive. Team 20, Stan James and Gregory Strohmeyer, were between Skwentna and the finish.  

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