2025 Iron Dog - Day 6 Update
Both motors and bodies started warming up before an early departure for the first set of racers to leave Nome. Team 20 first saw the green flag drop at 4AM sharp to begin their trek back toward Big Lake despite having the longest repair time in the garage at 36 minutes. The rest of the field was released according to the chart below:
The top 5 teams were released on true course time not to exceed 30 minutes between teams. Teams in position 6-11 were released on their real course time not to exceed 15 minutes, while positions 12-18 were the same but not to exceed 10 minutes. Any truing of the course times will happen at subsequent checkpoints.
Giving an idea of how the inspection and following repair time happens, the following photo shows a scrap of cardboard used to tabulate all the necessary tweaks and adjustments needed for Team 45 which they were able to complete in just 6 short minutes.
Getting to just the first checkpoint out of Nome, Team 14 was reported to be looking for an exhaust pipe (which they sourced from their parts plane) for their sled while Team 6 was reported to have snapped a drive chain. From the fanbase it was reported '14 and 6 both towed into White Mountain. 14 has a sick sounding motor on the towed sled, 6 has a broken chain. Both sleds doing the towing ran out of gas yards from the gas pumps.'
Layovers were declared as tools and parts were beginning to be gathered for some repairs. This has significantly stunted Team 6's chances at a decent finish this year and as of 2:30PM they are roughly 75 miles behind the next team currently sitting in last place on the trail. From the screenshot below, its clear they are still serious about racing with Mike Morgan exceeding 80mph across the bay.
Locals are reporting no new snow on the trail other than small drifts that shouldn't slow them down. Often breaking trail is a detriment to both speed and fuel consumption but this year it doesn't look like there's been any worrisome amount of new snowfall in the few short days between the time the racers went through all these checkpoints the first time.
Goals for today could have been Unalakleet, Kaltag, Galena, Ruby, or even all the way to McGrath. Early racing in the dark (and even flat light which bucked a racer from Team 34 off his sled) proved to be decent for most teams and it appears that the majority of the pack is pushing farther than likely anticipated despite incredibly cold and biting winds on the coast.
It's evident that Team 20, first to leave Nome, is looking to stretch their lead and establish some breathing room between themselves and the rest of the pack pushing all 682 miles to Nome in one day. A brutal mileage day followed by a long rest could prove to be strategic as the next section of trail, going through the snowless Farewell Burn area could prove to be as brutal...or worse.
A recap of Team 8's struggle to make it to Nome is as follows: 'Well things aren’t going as planned but we made it to Nome. Had a really good run going and actually set the 2nd fastest split from Kotz to Buckland and the fastest from Buckland to Koyuk. Just around Elim one of the sleds started having some runability issues and doing some cutting out. We changed the parts we had with us that we thought it could’ve been but nothing seemed to help. It would run good off and on but suspect we got some bad fuel. We basically towed for 100 except for getting out of White Mountain when it drove on its own power. Going to throw some parts at it in Nome and maybe get new fuel and hope for the best!' Despite this, its clear this wasn't something that fixed the issues which disappointingly ended Tyson Johnsons return run in the Pro-Class series.
PC: Heather Sottosanti
Layover strategy and running clean through the Farewell burn is going to be everyone's goal as they make the final push through the Alaska range and on toward Big Lake.