Iron Doggers pound way across finish

FAIRBANKS — After a final day of racing that could’ve been scripted by a Hollywood screenwriter, Tyler Huntington and Chris Olds are the 2011 Iron Dog champions.

The team of Huntington and Olds crossed the finish line of the 2,000-mile snowmachine race in Fairbanks at 5:51 p.m., Saturday, about 18 minutes ahead of the second-place team of Todd Palin and Eric Quam. Palin’s hometown is Wasilla, while Quam is from Palmer. Palin and Quam were actually in the lead coming down the homestretch into Fairbanks, but Palin suffered a mechanical issue that allowed Huntington and Olds to pass them.

“We had all kinds of neck-and-neck and back-and-forth going on,” said Iron Dog Executive Director Kevin Kastner. “At one point, (Marc) McKenna and (Dustin) Van Meter were blasting along and they went into the drink. In the end, the net result that ended up making the decision was Palin had an accident and nearly tore the ski off his sled.”

McKenna and Van Meter led the race into Nome at the halfway checkpoint, when most of the racers were held up by bad weather. In fact, race officials on Thursday thought the delays would push the expected finish from Saturday to Sunday, but the weather cleared up enough to allow the racers to continue, Kastner said.

“Well, just wait five minutes and it will all change again,” he said. “The conditions improved and we also made the decision to not hold them artificially in Tanana for 18 hours and force a Sunday finish. We crossed our fingers.”

The result, he said, was a successful finish that gave fans some excitement in Fairbanks. Last year’s winner came in two hours before the second-place finisher, he said. On Saturday, the top seven teams were all in less than two hours from each other.

Despite the weather delays and challenges, 12 teams finished the Iron Dog, one more than last year, Kastner said. For winning the Iron Dog, Huntington and Olds earned $50,000.