Veteran snowmachine racers Tyler Aklestad and Nick Olstad have claimed their fourth championship together in the Iron Dog, the world’s longest, toughest snowmachine race.
The team crossed the finish line in Fairbanks securing their place as the winningest duo in the race’s 41-year history.
Riding carbon fiber Ski-Doos, Aklestad and Olstad completed the 2,318-mile course in a time of 51 hours, 25 minutes, and 26 seconds.
“This one is going to have a lot of stories that go with it, but it feels good to be here and feels good to be here first,” Aklestad said after the finish.
The race began in Big Lake, traveled west to Kotzebue and Nome, then turned east to finish in Fairbanks.
Nome’s Steffen Booth and Evan Barber, known this year as the “Young Guns,” finished in eighth place. “We have the potential, we just gotta put all the little things together and clean it up,” Evan Barber said at the finish.
