Nome, AK – Amidst blowing snow and gusting winds hitting the Bering Strait coast, the 2017 Iron Dog Race is on schedule to depart Nome this morning, with the first team leaving at 8:00 a.m. headed toward the finish line in Fairbanks.
However, last night’s concerns about weather made for a shortened halfway banquet. Iron Dog Executive Director, Kevin Kastner, kicked off the event exactly at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday with hopes to fly out of Nome promptly afterwards. “Obviously there’s a storm right now that everyone’s concerned about, so that’s kind of what we’re watching and tracking. Myself, personally, I’m going to head to Fairbanks to get ahead of it, if I can, just to get a few of our key personnel ready to get to the finish line.”
Although the race is continuing on as normal today, Kastner explained last night that it would be unlikely to hold the racers if weather deteriorated, and described an alternative departure, if that was the case.
“The only consideration would be safety. If it’s deemed really dangerous, and there’s concern for their safety, we might send them on a caution flag, or a yellow flag. What that means is they would likely group them together, not in a racing mode, and get them to, say, Unalakleet or somewhere where the storm is not a factor, and then restart them again based on those separations.”
But before the winds picked up last night, the twenty-one teams who made it to Nome were individually acknowledged, including the first to make it to Nome. Team #16, Todd Minnick and Nick Olstad, received their $10,000 “Gold Rush” cash prize from Kurt Parkan of Donlin Gold.
With mostly full tables at the banquet held at the Nome Rec Center gym, groups munched on sandwiches, chips and homemade desserts from the Nome high school swim team. After welcoming teams to Nome, Mayor Richard Beneville shared his enthusiasm for the race, and his job as ambassador for the city.
“One of the great things that I get to do as mayor, one of my favorite things to do is to welcome people – for whatever reason they’re here…so for me, it’s a great joy because I’m so proud of Nome.”
Beneville also had some parting words for racers as they head out on the trail in potentially rough weather, wishing “Godspeed, be careful, keep your wits about you.”
2016 winners Tyler Aklestad and Tyson Johnson of team #8 are currently holding onto first position as they head back on the trail this morning at exactly 8 o’clock.
And, after final time calculations, the staggered departures will stretch until 12:38 p.m. today. Team #32 Rob Cleary and Dave Hausbeck will be the last to head back on the trail toward the finish line.
