New director hopes changes solidify Iron Dog race, continue growth

ANCHORAGE — It hasn’t been the smoothest trail for the Iron Dog in recent years, but the new executive director of the world’s longest snowmachine race is hoping for more solid ground in the future.

Kevin Kastner, who took the reins of the organization after the 2010 race, said he hopes a series of recent changes will help solidify the future of the race and allow the event to continue to grow.

“I would say we’re doing well, especially considering the year we came out of,” said Kastner, who’s been on the job for about six months.

Major adjustments include changes to the purse, start and finish. The Iron Dog, which features a host of sponsors new to the race within the last year, will offer a record purse for the 2011 race. The total purse will stand at $194,500, up from $187,900. But arguably bigger news than that, Kastner said, is the change to the payout schedule. Kastner said the Iron Dog board threw out the formula used to award cash prizes in the past. This year, the race will only award automatic payouts to the top five teams. But four of those spots will earn riders much more loot than in the past. The top prize still stands at $50,000. But second place is now at $35,000, a big improvement from last year’s $20,000. Third place will net a team $18,000, and prizes of $12,000 and $10,000 will be handed to the fourth and fifth teams respectively.

Kastner said all of the changes presented by the Iron Dog board have received predominately positive feedback, but there are those concerned with the lack of guaranteed cash for riders who sled into Fairbanks outside of the top five.

Kastner said he hopes the changes will increase competition for the top five. But the Iron Dog is also offering a carrot to chase for teams that know they’ll finish outside the top five. The sixth team in the race will earn automatic entry into the following year’s race. Iron Dog will also hold a finisher’s drawing for all the teams who complete the race in seventh place or beyond. Additional prizes — such as cash and gift certificates — will be drawn after the conclusion of the race.

The first team that arrives in Nome, the unofficial midway point of the race, will also score $10,000 in gold.

The race, which is slated to begin Feb. 20 at 11 a.m. in Big Lake, will also have a new stage at the start. Iron Dog officials opted to move the start to Big Lake’s South Port Marina.

“There were several reasons in the thinking,” Kastner said. “We’re looking at opportunities to grow the event.”

Kastner said he’d like to see the start be a televised event. In other staging areas, television crews would not have access with production trucks, Kastner said. Kastner would also like to see additional smaller events, such as snowmachine snowcross racing or freestyle jumping, added to the festivities of the start day.

“One of the things we need for that is land, having the proximity to land and power,” Kastner said.

Iron Dog has also moved its finish line from Pikes Landing, outside of Fairbanks, to the Interior city’s downtown.

Kastner said too much open water, a problem becoming more persistent in recent years, on the Chena River near Pikes Landing forced organizers to change the race route. And like the decision that led to the change to the start, Kastner said the Iron Dog desires more room at the finish to help facilitate growth.

The change will add more miles to the race. Riders will make sort of a loop around the city before coming in on the Chena River on the opposite side of town.

Overall, Kastner credited sponsors such as National Guard and Donlin Creek with aiding Iron Dog’s transition to another level.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/matsu_sports.