Alaska News

Suddenly tight Iron Dog comes down to final 290-mile dash to Fairbanks

Time to see who has sprint speed.

Most of the top long-distance snowmachine racers in the world queued up in the Interior village Tanana on Friday night at the confluence of the Yukon and Tanana rivers, where the two-driver teams will rest before launching a 290-mile dash to the Iron Dog finish line Saturday morning.

As they have for much of the 2,000-mile race from Big Lake to Nome and on to Fairbanks, the tandem of former champion Eric Quam and 31-year-old Scott Faeo leads. But an advantage that had been several hours earlier in the race had been cut 32 minutes by cagey veteran Scott Davis, a seven-time champion, and young Aaron Bartel of Anchorage.

But on Thursday night, Davis and Bartel sounded like anything but a team that might challenge for victory.

"We're just clicking off the miles on the river to see if we can get to the finish line," a glum Davis told Dan Carpenter of KTUU in Galena.

"We got an unlucky break there," Bartel added. "Scott caught an ice edge there he didn't see there out in the blizzard. That definitely took the wind out of our sails. We're pretty beat up and bruised."

Just 23 minutes behind Davis and Bartel loomed the team of four-time champion Marc McKenna of Anchorage and rookie teammate Allen Hill. McKenna is known as a hard-charging driver and dangerous closer who's tough to beat down the stretch.

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The winner is expected to reach the finish line on the Chena River in Fairbanks by midday. The top team will collect $50,000, with $35,000 going to the runners-up and $20,000 to the third-place team.

Iron Dog's record purse is more than $254,000 this year, including an array of contingency prizes. Just 21 teams remain in the race. Sixteen teams have scratched.

Mike Campbell

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

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