2019 Iron Dog - Day 7 Update

After 34 hours and 27 minutes elapsed since the racers started the Iron Dog in Willow, Mike Morgan and Chris Olds crossed the finish line in Fairbanks to claim a back-to-back championship as the duo claimed the top prize last year in the 2018 race.

Besting their 2018 race time by nearly three and a half hours total, Team 10 had a moving average of 57 mph. Achieving a moving average that fast for nearly 2,000 miles is simply astounding. Keep in mind that the overall course time includes stopping for fuel, repairs, maintenance, and anything else that requires them to stop moving. The level of endurance and speed these racers achieve on the trail day after day makes one wonder about the average person that says "I think I could race the Iron Dog". I believe the Pro-Class racers are truly in a class of their own. For this exceptional performance, Team 10 goes home $100,000 richer.

Crossing the finish line just 22 minutes behind the winners, Team 6 claimed the second prize, going home with their second place trophies.

Shaking the top 10 up a bit, Team 49 ran into some trouble allowing some teams to overtake their position due to a broken clutch which they encountered about 60 miles from the finish. This allowed Team 30, veteran Kyle Conner and his rookie partner Blake Elder to claim 7th position, being the first Arctic Cat team to finish, sealing the $10,000 prize for that category.

In a display of determination and grit, after Robby Schachle and his teammate Scott Faeo learned that there were no outbound flights from Unalakleet, where they were forced to scratch, Robby decided he wasn't going to miss the finish of the race, so he decided to ride his Ski-Doo MXZ from Unalakleet to Fairbanks through the night. Leaving Unalakleet around 6pm, Schachle raced toward Fairbanks and made the nearly 600 mile trip in somewhere between 9-11 hours, without stopping for anything but fuel. His machine was spotted parked outside of the hotel where he was getting some much needed rest!

As of writing this, team 44 is only a few miles out of Fairbanks, rounding off the rest of the field of finishers for this 2019 Iron Dog.