Scratches the story after Sunday's Iron Dog re-start in Big Lake

BIG LAKE — As those racers remaining in the 2017 Iron Dog neared the halfway mark of the 2,031-mile epic snowmachine race, it looked like a rerun of 2016. Last year's champions — Tyson Johnson and Tyler Aklestad (Team 8), and Team 16 — Todd Minnick and Nick and Olstad of Wasilla were four minutes apart. Both had checked out of Koyuk heading north just after 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, but Minnick and Olstad were the first to depart.

Several other teams were in striking distance of grabbing bragging rights. Team 41 — Cory Davis of Soldotna and Ryan Simons of Camrose, Alberta, were 39 minutes off the pace. But the real story of the race so far has been scratches. Of the 35 teams that headed out of Big Lake Sunday afternoon, 14 had scratched as of noon Tuesday leaving 21 in the running.

Temperatures were running well into the -30 to -40 degrees range in the interior valleys; nothing out of the ordinary for the week-long event. However, after today, a major warm-up is expected with a wintery mix on tap for Wednesday on the Seward Peninsula and following the teams as they work their way east into Fairbanks for Saturday's finish.

Two teams (25-12) didn't make it out of the chute at Big Lake Sunday. Team 30 scratched out from Skwentna, as did Team 18 heading out from Puntilla. Team 3 scratched coming into McGrath, and while teams 37, 23 and 10 tossed it in coming out of McGrath. Team 27 called it quits an hour and half later coming into Ophir and Team 5 was done heading out of Poorman. Team 15 was out heading into Galena while teams 39 and 22 scratched heading out. Team 44 eclipsed the 746-mile mark after heading out of Kaltag.

The top finishers are expected to reach Fairbanks sometime around noon Saturday.