ALL IN THE FAMILY

BIG LAKE — When 39 Iron Dog racing teams screamed down the spectator-lined starting chute and across Big Lake Sunday morning, one team had some bigger shoes to fill than most — the Faeo brothers racing team of Scott, 29, and John Jr., 34.

And those shoes belong to their dad, John Faeo, a seven-time Iron Dog champion and winner of the first Iron Dog in 1984.

John Faeo and partner Rod Frank took the first race, then called the Iditarod Iron Dog Classic. The race went from McGrath to Nome, and 15 teams raced for a total purse of $20,000. The Faeo/Frank team averaged 35 mph.

Faeo again won the race in ’86, ’87 and ’88 with five-time champion and Iron Dog Hall of Famer Dan Zipay. In 1990 and ’91, Faeo again shared the checkered flag, but this time with Bob Gilman. These two wins put him in the record books as the winningest racer in Iron Dog history. His seventh and final victory would again be shared with racing partner Bob Gilman in 1996.

The seven-time champion’s record would stand until 2007, when Scott Davis won his seventh race. Davis was partnered with Todd Palin. In all, Faeo raced the Iron Dog 23 times.

Racing runs in the blood of the Faeo family. Scott and John Jr. have grown up around racing. Their grandfather, Larry Heal, raced with the Alaska Motor Mushers Club. Scott has been racing pro cross-country snowmachine races for the past couple seasons.

Standing in the pit area of the 2013 Iron Dog Sunday morning, the brothers knew all to well where they need to be when that checkered flag drops. Certain members of the family have been reminding them a little bit about it.

“Oh yeah, we’ve been harassing them a bit,” said mom Vicki Faeo. “Got to.”

For mom being on the starting line is nothing new. “I’ve been an Iron Dog wife for 25 years and now I am an Iron Dog mom,” she said as she snapped pictures of the brothers getting ready to move to the starting line.

There had been talk around the Faeo house about the two boys running the race Vicki said. “I always told them when they had an extra $50,000 to jump right in there.”

And they did, and right alongside them is their dad.

“He is flying cover them,” Vicki said. “He is in McGrath with them right now.”

According to mom, the elder Faeo has kind of been their crew chief. She said he has been helping them with a few things on the machines and giving them tips.

“He has had no problem with giving them advice,” she said. “He’s been right in there.”

How the Faeo brothers will do is anyone’s guess, but one thing they do have going for them is the family connection. Even though the brothers are six years apart, they have been riding together forever. They built a duplex together and now live there as neighbors. They are both electricians. Can they parlay that connection into speed on the trail?

They think so.

The younger Faeo said they each know how the other brother rides and can tell what the other is going to do before he does it when we are out riding.

John Jr. agrees with that.

“We’ve been riding together forever, so we pretty much have the same pace,” he said. “It helps out a lot when you’re kind of relying on you partner. You don’t have to wait for him and he doesn’t have to wait for you.”

John Jr. said the two feel comfortable riding at the same pace. “We’re pretty good at keeping the pace together.”

And being able to maintain a steady, fast pace can keep a team in the race provided their luck holds and their machines stays together mechanically. So far for the Faeo brothers, things have been good. The two reached McGrath and were in 16^th place after Sunday’s Iron Dog start.

According to their mom, their machines were running great.

“They had a problem with their goggles last night as they came into McGrath,” she said.

She said they couldn’t see that well and didn’t know the area, so they decided to take a 14-hour layover.

Being lucky

They say a big part of the race is luck, and for some luck comes into play more often than not. For racers like Tyler Aklestad and Tyson Johnson, bad luck has seemed to dog them the last few years. Most recently was in 2011, when Aklestad's machine caught fire, forcing the team to scratch from the race early. The next year the duo split up and raced with different partners.

Johnson joined Chad Gueco, a rookie, and Aklestad raced alongside multiple-time Alaska State Motocross champion Aaron Loyer. Johnson and Gueco placed sixth while Aklestad and Loyer scratched.

Now back together for 2013, the Team CC racers hope to change that pattern.

“I think we have had a lot of bad luck in the past,” Johnson said. “Hopefully we’ve got that out of the way. I don’t think you can have bad luck forever. It’s got to change at some point and hopefully this is our year.”

For Aklestad, it is just a matter of getting out on the trail and taking what comes.

“You know were feeling good,” he said. “We just have to get out there and get going down the trail and see what happens, see what comes at us.”

For racing partners Aaron Bartel of Anchorage and Brad George of Wasilla, there is no way to gauge good luck or bad luck because the two have never raced together. In fact, according to George, they have not had any training time together.

Most teams will run about 2,000 training miles. In the case of Todd Palin and Scott Davis, who had to get familiar with a new sled, more than 3,000 miles were put in. But for George and Bartel, not even 200 miles have been shared.

“I’ve only ridden with him once,” George said. “We went to Skwentna and back once. That is the only ride we have ever done.”

George said he felt good about it.

“He’s got a lot of miles in this year and I have a lot of miles in and I know he is a pretty quick kid, so it should be alright," George said.

George was signed up to run the race with his father, Andy George, but due to a torn rotator cuff and two snapped tendons, the elder George was forced to withdraw. Bartel was paired up with Jason Wichman who, according to Graeber, also had an injury possibly fractured ribs and had to step out of the race.

Brad George may have his work cut out for him, though. Not only is he riding with the unknowns that come with a new partner, George is riding a new machine that is vastly different from what he is used to.

“I’ve been riding Polaris,” George said. “I’ve only got 200 miles on this Ski-Doo total. I’ve never ridden a Ski-Doo in my life until a week before now.”

He said the new machine feels different from what he is used to, but overall he thinks it will be a good run with his new sled and partner.

Also running new machines is the veteran team of Palin and Davis. The duo rode Arctic Cats for much of their career, but for 2013 they too are running Ski-Doo, the Ski-Doo MX Z X 600cc to be exact.

Palin and he his teammate have had plenty of time to test their new machines.

“We put close to 3,000 miles on our practice sleds,” Palin said. “All we have had to do was gas and oil, and suspension tuning.”

Palin said as far as the sled goes, they have been really happy with the performance and how they ride. That, however, is only part of the equation when you switch machines.

Palin said that with the new machines comes the need to know how to work on them.

“The learning curve has been huge,” he said. “We’ve been on ‘Cats’ for so many years and we know the product, so any time you jump on a new sled there is a learning curve and a lot of unknowns. All we’ve had to do is gas and oil, so if we have a motor problem we don’t know what we are going to do. We’ll see what happens.”

By press time Monday the 39 Iron Dog teams were spread out across the Alaska wilderness.

Leading the charge in the early stages of the race is Wasilla’s Todd Minnick and Nick Olstad followed by Team 23, Brian Dick and Eric Quam. Sitting in third was Brad Dietrich and

Tim Jauhola of Fairbanks, and rounding out the top four positions was Team

10, Mike Morgan and Chris Olds.

Just off the leading pack’s heels was the team of Aklestad and Johnson. Neither Johnson or Aklestad had any plans of leading the race early. According to Johnson, middle of the pack, behind the leaders would be a good place.

“We don’t necessarily want to be out front,” Johnson said as he checked his bags on his snow machine Sunday morning before the race start. “There is some new snow so we just want to hang back and maybe be in the top fiveish. Not ride to fast and break our equipment but be in the hunt and know we can push when we need to”

According to race statistics and tracking information on irondograce.org, the leading pack averaged close to 60 mph on their run from Skwentna through Shell Lake and on to Puntilla on Day 1 of the race.

Weather conditions for the start of the 30th running of what is billed as the world’s longest, toughest snowmachine race were marginal at best Sunday.

Iron Dog race marshal Chris Graeber said due to the overcast skies, she was not sure if the planes were going to be able to fly, but trail conditions were a different story.

“We have had a dusting of snow so up through Skwentna. We have about 2 inches of fresh snow,” she said. “The trail has already been broke all the way to Poorman. I’ve got my trail class already through there.”

Graeber did, however, point to the usual obstacles that Iron Dog racers face.

“There is a little bit of a hazard around Rainy Pass. A couple of open water spots and your typical rocks," Graeber said.

But the new snow and more snow farther up the trail was helping this year shape up to be one of the best, she said.

“Through the burn has more snow than we’ve seen there in a long time, so it’s going to be a good year," Graeber said.

Robert DeBerry is the photo editor at the Frontiersman. He can be reached at 352-2266 or

Robert.deberry@frontiersman.com.