Iron Dog standings get major shakeup

By the time things sorted themselves out Friday, the team of Marc McKenna of Anchorage and Eric Quam of Eagle River -- a team that had never before vied for the lead -- was at the front of the 2,000-mile snowmachine marathon from Big Lake to Nome to Fairbanks.

The team of 28-year-old Todd Minnick and 25-year-old Nick Olstad from Wasilla, who had led for much of the race, were back in sixth place.

And the team of defending champs Todd Palin of Wasilla and Scott Davis of Soldotna had come perilously close to crashing out. The 43-year-old Palin, husband of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, hit a barrel hidden under snow coming into Galena, smashed his snowmachine and went flying over the handlebars.

Davis, 48, was rattled enough by the accident to rush Palin straight to the Galena clinic without bothering to deal with the wreckage of the snowmobile. He later went back and got it while Todd was being checked out by a health aide, who decided the battered racer was OK to continue.

His machine, however, was a different matter. He and Davis spent hours rebuilding it, and by the time everything was back together, they were far behind.

McKenna and Quam, meanwhile, were roaring into Tanana, a little shocked to find themselves in the lead as the race went into its overnight hold. Racers are kept in Tanana until morning to ensure the Iron Dog a daylight finish in Fairbanks.

Asked how he grabbed the lead, McKenna, the 2005 champ with then-partner Olstad, could only say, "I don't know.''

Galena checker Ray Debenham, an Iron Dog veteran, said the big shake up came on the Yukon when a bunch of racers apparently got lost leaving Kaltag. It was snowing, blowing and drifting on the river at the time, making it hard to see, he said.

And the trail upriver from Kaltag to Koyukuk was not well marked.

"I staked the trail good from there to Galena," he said, "but everybody was on the south side of the river, and the trail was on the north side of the river."

Teams breaking trail through fresh snow and drifts on the south side of the river lost a lot of time to teams that found the trail on the north side. The conditions provided an especially big boost for 22-year-old Tyler Huntington from Galena and 50-year-old Pete Demoski from Fairbanks, who grew up in the Koyukuk country.

The two vaulted from back in the pack to third into Tanana on Friday. They took over from Minnick and Olstad the distinction of riding the top Polaris snowmachines in the race.

McKenna and Quam are riding Arctic Cats, which have won the world's longest, toughest snowmobile race three years running. Just behind them are another pair of Cats piloted by 2006 champs Andy George from Wasilla and Dwayne Drake from Fairbanks, who also jumped up from well back.

They are almost two hours ahead of Demoski and Huntington, but about an hour and twenty minutes behind the leaders.

The margin provides some comfort for McKenna and Quam.

"We're just going to try to take it easy to get to Nenana, and then breeze in,'' McKenna said, barring any more problems.

"We haven't had a checkpoint yet where we haven't had a problem," he added. "It's been nothing but odd luck and bad luck."

The team has had to deal with three center suspension shocks that failed, a front suspension arm that broke, and almost no end of small but pesky engine problems, he said.

"Little stuff here and there kind of ate us up the whole race,'' McKenna said. "But somehow it's worked out to this point. We're in pretty decent shape now."

With just a little luck, they'll be in even better shape at the finish line in Fairbanks today.

McKenna confessed to worrying about the reality that something could still go wrong, but "so far it sounds good.

"It's just not going to sink in until I see Fairbanks."

The winning team gets $25,000 for crossing the finish line first, but the prize money doesn't really even cover the cost of running the race.

Then again, victory here isn't so much about money as it is about honor.

In the 25-year history of the Iron Dog, fewer than 20 people have been able to claim a piece of the championship in the world's longest, toughest, wildest snowmobile race.

Daily News reporter Craig Medred can be reached at cmedred@adn.com or 257-4588.