This year’s Nome-Golovin champion was open-class racer Tre West, who finished with a time of 2:05:50. West has been racing in the Nome-Golovin since he was 18, and has competed in other regional snowmachine races as well — he won the Archie Ferguson/Willie Goodwin Sr. Memorial Snowmachine Race in 2018.
George Lewis finished second with a time of 2:09:04, and in third place was Mike Morgan, who finished with a time of 2:14:03.
While West was the overall winner, he wasn’t the first across the finish line. The women’s class runs a shorter trail, from Nome to Topkok and back, so they were first to return to Nome. Sharla Kalerak won the women’s class with a time of 1:07:23. Mary Hyatt came in second with a time of 1:07:55. And in third place in the women’s class was Dawn Wehde, with a time of 1:13:37.
There were two other classes in this year’s Nome-Golovin race, both of which ran the full trail. George Lambert won the 0–600 cc class with a time of 2:12:30. Second in that class was Jordan Miller with a time of 2:15:59. Casey Sherman took third in the 0–600 cc class with a time of 2:16:09.
In the fan-cooled class, Gabe Schaeffer won with a time of 2:13:08, Charles Peterson was second with a time of 2:19:55, and Bethany Horton came third with a time of 2:26:18.
Forty-seven racers accelerated off the Nome-Golovin starting line, but only half of those made it all the way to the finish. That’s a fairly typical scratch rate for the Nome-Golovin, Race Manager Kevin Bahnke said. The race trail this year started out pretty smooth but didn’t stay that way, according to fourth-place finisher Jarvis Miller.
“It’s smooth from here to Topkok. After that it turned into that ice — that wind did a number on the snow. There’s no forgiveness in ice and there’s really no strategy. You’ve just got to sit down and hang on,” Miller said.
This year’s race wasn’t without incident. Women’s-class racer Richelle Stasenko got into a wreck about 25 minutes into her run and had to scratch. Two snowmachines caught fire during the race, and open-class racer Joe Fullwood was helicoptered out of Golovin after a bad wreck. Fortunately, no one was hospitalized.
According to a post on the Nome-Golovin Facebook page, in the open class, the winner received $2000, second place received $1200 and third place received $800. The prizes for the 0–600 cc class were the same. In the fan-cooled class, the winner received $1200 and second place received $800. In the women’s class, the winner received $1500, second place received $1000 and third place received $500.
In addition to those prizes, the winner of each class received 50% of the registration fee money for that class, second place received 30%, and third place received 20%. As overall winner, Tre West also received two ounces of gold.
Click below to hear portions of KNOM’s live coverage of the start and end of the 2022 Nome-Golovin race from Nome:
Image at top: A racer waits to accelerate off the starting line at the 2022 Nome-Golovin. Photo by Ron Sloane.
