Eight hours and 450 miles after leaving Nome on Thursday, the Tesoro Iron Dog snow machine race rocketed into the Yukon River community of Galena, where race leaders were left to ponder what is likely to happen today -- Friday the 13th.
Two things were givens: All of the front-runners had to complete the mandatory rest stops required between Nome and Fairbanks, and there were only two checkpoints left in which to do that. Whether the leaders did the six hours in Galena and then zoomed down the trail 50 miles to do 12 hours in Ruby, or vice versa, wasn't expected to matter much.
Polaris Dragon drivers Todd Minnick, 29, and Nick Olstad, 26, from Wasilla, were almost certain to remain at the front of the race as they have been since the start at Big Lake on Sunday.
They led to the Bering Sea community of Nome, where the Iron Dog takes more than a day off to hold a banquet, and they led back along the Bering Sea coast and into the Interior. They left Nome at 8 a.m. Thursday and pulled into Galena in the Interior at 4 p.m. Their average speed was about 55 mph.
Behind them, the Ski-doo team of 23-year-old Tyler Aklestad from Palmer and 29-year-old Tyson Johnson from Eagle River cut the lead from half an hour to about 15 minutes. But that didn't appear to mean much, given the potential race-altering wildcard waiting east of Ruby.
"As near as we can tell, there's no trail between Ruby and Tanana,'' said Ray Debenham, the race checker in Galena and an Iron Dog veteran. "And there's about two feet of new snow.
"Sometimes you don't want to be in first place.''
Unless Minnick and Olstad get a lucky break and someone packs out the trail overnight, they could end up the main trail breakers for about 120 miles to Tanana, or until they get caught by chasing teams. Trail breaking slows speeds considerably and costs fuel.
"Who's going to run out of gas'' Debenham wondered. "That's what's going to happen unless they plan ahead.
"This is such a wonderful race because there's so many variables. There's so many variables it's unbelievable.''
A year ago, one such variable stole the dreams of Minnick and Olstad on the Yukon. They led the race into Kaltag, took a break there and then drove out into a blizzard. They got lost. So did a bunch of other teams. All of the others fared better than Minnick and Olstad, however. They came out of the storm into the position of also-rans by Galena.
Anchorage's Marc McKenna, meanwhile, moved to the front with teammate Eric Quam from Eagle River. They went on to win the $25,000 prize waiting in Fairbanks. McKenna is in the hunt again this year, albeit with new partner Dusty Van Meter, 39, from Kasilof. The race Thursday appeared to be down to these three teams.
Find Craig Medred online at adn.com/contact/cmedred or call 257-4588.
Leader board: Updated standings
By CRAIG MEDRED
cmedred@adn.com