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Iron Dog restarts Wednesday in Nome with Lapham, Weisz clinging to 6.5-minute lead after 1,000 miles

Anything can happen in the Iron Dog, even when the race is on pause.

The team of Robby Schachle and Brad George were in first place in the 2,600-mile snowmachine race across Alaska when they reached Nome on Monday. They’ll be in second place Wednesday morning when the race resumes after a long layover there.

Leading the way out of Nome at 8 a.m. will be the team of Brett Lapham and Zack Weisz. They registered the second-fastest time on the 1,000-mile run from Big Lake to Nome, but they vaulted past Schachle and George on Tuesday by spending less time working on their machines.

Nome is where teams get time to spend in a garage to make repairs, and that time is added to their race time. Lapham and Weisz were about 10 minutes slower than Schachle and George on the race trail, but they were several minutes faster in the garage. They’ll leave Nome with a slim 6.5-minute lead over Schachle and George.

The top four teams are separated by less than 13 minutes. 2019 champions Chris Olds and Mike Morgan are in third place, and Casey Boylan and Brian Leslie are in fourth place.

Reigning champions Tyler Aklestad and Nick Olstad dropped out of the race with mechanical problems Monday.

From Nome, teams will make a loop to Kotzebue before heading back to the finish line at Big Lake.

Eighteen of the 21 teams that left Big Lake on Saturday are still in the race. A winner is expected around noon Saturday at Burkeshore Marina.

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