Alaska News

Faeos may be on brink of becoming first family of Iron Dog racing

Sled dog racing has the Seaveys and Mackeys, multi-generational Iditarod championship families in which both father and son have occupied the winner's circle. Now, the Iron Dog may be about to follow suit with the Faeos.

No snowmachine driver has more wins than now-retired John Faeo's six. And barring a catastrophe over the final 530 miles of the Iron Dog trail, son Scott Faeo, 31, could follow in his father's footsteps on Saturday. It would be the first time both a father and son have claimed Iron Dog titles.

The younger Faeo and partner Eric Quam, a 2008 champion, pulled into Ruby at 3:33 a.m. Friday to start a 10-hour layover. They hold a comfortable lead over the next team to start its 10-hour rest at that checkpoint, the surging duo of Shane Barber and Ryan Sottosanti, which struggled early in the race to earn a spot among the top-10 racers.

A trio of teams that started their 10-hour layovers in the prior checkpoint of Galena, 52 miles from Ruby, are actually closer to the leaders. Aaron Bartel and graybeard Scott Davis stopped there at 3:49 a.m., Marc McKenna and his McKenna Brothers Paving employee Allen Hill followed at 4:15 a.m. and another father-son combo, Andy and Brad George began their layover at 4:32 a.m. They should quickly cover those 52 miles and pass the Barber-Sottosanti duo before the latter can begin racing again.

Once the top teams are back on the trail Friday afternoon, they'll be scooting atop the snow-covered river ice of Interior Alaska, 120 miles to Tanana, 69 miles farther to Manley Hot Springs and 110 miles to Nenana, where they'll stop for the day to ensure a mid-day Saturday finish in Fairbanks.

Barring a breakdown or crash, victory seems likely for Faeo and Quam. In the roughly 35 hours they've spent racing their Polaris machines, they've averaged 46 mph. No team has gone faster.

Racers could encounter snowfall Saturday morning, with the National Weather Service predicting 1 to 3 inches for the Interior. But that shouldn't be enough to slow the top racers much.

Mike Campbell

Mike Campbell was a longtime editor for Alaska Dispatch News, and before that, the Anchorage Daily News.

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