The world's longest, toughest snowmachine race was parked in the far-from-anywhere Yukon River village of Tanana on Friday night with a new set of leaders, a pair of two-time defending champs resurgent, and the halfway frontrunners struggling.
Hitting average speeds of up to 86 mph between Yukon checkpoints, the Polaris-riding duo of Todd Minnick and Nick Olstad from Wasilla roared into the community of about 300 shortly before 2:30 p.m. to grab the lead in the 2,000-mile race.
Not far behind them were defending champs Marc McKenna from Anchorage and Dusty VanMeter from Kasilof on their Ski-Doos, with the halfway leaders in the race from Big Lake to Nome to Fairbanks -- Mike Morgan from Nome and Chris Olds from Eagle River on their Polarises -- even farther back.
Site of a trade station that dates back to the purchase of Alaska from Russia, and later the support center for a World War II airport that supported U.S. aircraft being ferried to Russia as part of the Lend-Lease program, Tanana is best known these days as the community where the television show "Yukon Men" is filmed and where the Iron Dog pauses to ensure a Saturday arrival in Fairbanks, the largest city in Interior Alaska.
Usually, the leaders in Tanana -- teams race in pairs for safety -- end up the winners at the finish less than 300 miles on down the trail. But breakdowns and crashes have on occasion happened. And McKenna, 39, and VanMeter, 44 -- who can claim nine Iron Dog titles between them -- are only about 20 minutes back if the leaders falter.
Veterans of almost two dozen Iron Dogs between them, Minnick and Olstad have only three victories, and Olstad has been riding a string of bad luck. He did not finish both last year and the year before. The Force, however, has been with him and his teammate this year.
They took it easy on the halfway run from Big Lake to Nome, and then put the hammer down after the Iron Dog celebration in the Bering Sea city. They were posting the fastest times in the race as the Iron Dog sped south. They were closing fast on halfway leaders Morgan, 28, and Olds, 42, even before they ran into problems on the Yukon.
What happened to the duo between the communities of Galena and Ruby remains unclear, but whether because of breakdown or crash, they're average speed fell from near 70 mph to less than 30 mph.
With Minnick and Olstad averaging 82 mph on the same long, flat stretch of river there, and McKenna and VanMeter posting a 74 mph average, the one-time leaders lost a lot of time fast. They managed to make repairs of some sort in Ruby and were back up to speed on the run to Tanana, but by then they'd lost a lot of time.
They now sit almost an hour back on the leaders. Behind them, a dozen of the 37 teams that began the race in Big Lake on Sunday have so far been forced to drop out. The rough and barren trails of an unusually snow-short midwinter for Alaska have taken a considerable toll on both men and machinery.
Contact Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com.