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4 minutes ago, hunt_ak said:

I see we are up to 4 teams scratched.  16 is clearly due to injury.  31 due to Menne's sled damage?  The other two teams (35 and 17)?  

 

Team 15 just scratched.  Unofficially I heard Micah hit a tree today south of Poorman and that slowed them down a bunch.  They just scratched minutes ago in Ruby.

Team 35 hit a nasty hole in the Alaska Range.  I think it was before Puntilla.  They pushed on through the evening finally making it to McGrath.  Got checked at the clinich and it was a broken clavicle is what I heard.

Team 17 hit something or maybe several things between Rohn and Nikolai.  Rays sled was wasted pulling into Nikolai.  Horrible snow and visibility prevented their pilot from flying.  Pilot was in McGrath with parts but they just couldn't make it.  

 

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S

1 minute ago, hunt_ak said:

Thanks Tom.  I saw Ray's sled.  Tag  me on Bobby's if you can...

I will try to look for it.  It was late last night.  There have literally been thousands of posts on the Iron Dog Group facebook page.  Shit posted 30 minutes ago is virtually gone.  

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Just now, AKIQPilot said:

S

I will try to look for it.  It was late last night.  There have literally been thousands of posts on the Iron Dog Group facebook page.  Shit posted 30 minutes ago is virtually gone.  

What a nightmare....lol

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So the story today is Team 8.  Obviously the front runners have been battling it out all day trading decals and laughing at each other at the fuel stops but back in the pack Team 8 made their repairs to Tylers sled and got back on the trail.  I don't have exact details but I suspect Tyson told Tyler he could weld the sled up and get them back in the race.  I think they welded the broken drop brackets back in place and braced everything up.  Tyson is a very good TIG welder so no doubt he was able to fix them right up.  

IT looks to me like the repairs took about 1hr 15 minutes, or close to that.  Once on the clock Team 8 started picking off teams one by one.  I think they got back on the trail in about 12th place.  By the end of the day they were in Kaktag in 6th place.  They passed most of the other teams in the rough stuff between Opher and Ruby.  Once on the river they just hammered down and passed two other teams with relative ease.  IF I were Team 5 or Team 6 I would be concerned with Team 8 breathing down my neck.  All the numbers are on the STATS page but it seems to me like Team * made up over 30 minutes of time on the 75 minutes they gave up fixing their sleds this morning.  Either way, Team 8 was the fastest team on the course today, by a long ways.  

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Nice write up kyle.

Let me add just a little detail to the first video.

Team 14 had caught up to Team 20 between Ruby and Galena.  BIG B (Team 14 Casey Boylan) entered the checkpoint first (seconds before the video started.  Followed by Team 20 Scott Faeo.  In the video coming in sideways is LIL B (Team 14 Bryan Leslie).  Team 20 Robbie Schachle is the last rider into the Galena refueling checkpoint.  BIG and LIL B refueled fast and got out just ahead of Team 20.  From there Team 14 put the flipper to the bar and basically left Team 20 in the dust.  LIL B said he never even say their headlights once they were back on the river after Galena.  

LIL B told me their sleds have several MPH over Team 20 sleds but nothing for Team 10 sleds.  

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1 minute ago, AKIQPilot said:

So this is the horrible trail conditions teams will encounter tomorrow.........

The 90 miles between Kaltag an Unalakleet.  Trail class teams today taking a nice rest before hitting the coast.  

52852287_10216016339975199_2404336663829

Does the area thats always grass have snow this yr?

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2 minutes ago, DAVE said:

Does the area thats always grass have snow this yr?

The Farewell Burn.  Well, according to riders who were there this week,  the burn itself was still fairly snowless but the tree riding on each end of the burn had plenty of snow.  Trail  class riders said it was the most snow they had ever seen in the 90 miles from Rohn to Nikolai.  

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Slight correction to Team 15's reason for scratching.  Micah broke a front track shock south of Poorman.  Removed that and kept plugging away.  About 30 miles out of Ruby the motor on Micah's sled started getting weak and blew up.  They towed to Ruby.  In Ruby they decided the motor was fixable but would need to tow the 60 miles to Galena so they had better access to tools and a better place to lay over.  They pull out of Ruby then begin towing to Galena and got 5 miles from town and Wes's sled blows up.  

So it was actually motor problems that took them out and not the wreck.  

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13 minutes ago, AKIQPilot said:

Slight correction to Team 15's reason for scratching.  Micah broke a front track shock south of Poorman.  Removed that and kept plugging away.  About 30 miles out of Ruby the motor on Micah's sled started getting weak and blew up.  They towed to Ruby.  In Ruby they decided the motor was fixable but would need to tow the 60 miles to Galena so they had better access to tools and a better place to lay over.  They pull out of Ruby then begin towing to Galena and got 5 miles from town and Wes's sled blows up.  

So it was actually motor problems that took them out and not the wreck.  

Polaris?

Edited by Kev144
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So Team 8 made up almost 30 minutes on the leaders yesterday on the trail.  They passed over 6 teams along the way.  Today, Irondog gave 20 minutes back to Team 8 (subtracted it from their course time) for issues.  10 minutes for rendering aid to the injured rider, Todd Minnick (broken leg) rode double with Tyson Johnson to the McGrath hospital..  10 minutes for a non functioning fuel pump in Ophir that caused 3 teams to have a 10 minute delay.  

As the teams leave Unalakleet today heading to Nome Team 8 is only 29 minutes out of the lead.  29 minutes is huge and almost insurmountable until you realize that Team 8 made up 30 minutes in one day and less than 450 miles.  

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So the stretch from Unalakleet to Nome is about 250 miles around and across the Norton Sound.  This is typically a place where nasty storms cause all kinds of troubles for the teams.  More often than not Irondog has had to alter the course or alter the race in this section of the course due to weather.  A couple years back the weather was so bad that all teams had to parade single file with no passing from Nome back to Unalakleet then the race was restarted.  

This year the Norton Sound is beautiful.  It is today anyway.  

Team 10 is leading the race now.  Mike Morgan from Team 10 is from Nome.  His parents owned a snowmobile dealership there growing up.  He knows this part of the course better than anyone.  That knowledge would really come in handy during a nasty storm.  On a bright sunny day the playing field is somewhat leveled.  

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I just realized this link wasn't posted here yet.  This is the 2019 Irondog Group page on Facebook.  Hundreds of incredible pictures and videos and live streams.  There has never been a year with better coverage than this.  Those locals out there are really stepping up their social media game this year.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/irondograce/?multi_permalinks=1336767599799862%2C1336815983128357%2C1336789316464357&notif_id=1550605800052269&notif_t=group_activity

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