(Cool Pics Below)Palin came in second.. from what I am reading on twitter.. he crashed… and the other team over took his lead. arrrgh. but hey. 2nd aint so bad of a showing. I guess he has won this thing 7 times. Fairbanks, Alaska —
As she does more often than not, Mother Nature dictated the terms of the 2011 Iron Dog snow machine race. But the team of Tyler Huntington and Chris Olds came prepared and won the trophy this year.
Racers survived tough, wet, snowy conditions all the way to Nome, and then blizzard-like conditions held them up for a day in Nome. Race Marshal Chris Graeber had racers under a yellow caution flag from Nome back to Unalakleet, where the race was officially restarted. A tight race between team 10, Huntington/Olds and team 11, Todd Palin and Eric Quam ensued, with the lead changing hands several times down the icy river on a picture-perfect day.
Race strategy, luck, less wrenching, most racers will say that winning the Iron Dog comes down to any number of possibilities. Huntington and Olds had a healthy dose of all of these and outraced the other teams to the finish in Fairbanks.
*Update* (ht Kristi) 2/26
OMG.. PALIN is in first place!!!!! Oh and he is 23 minutes AHEAD of the team in 2nd!
Avg speed is 74.16 MPH…. wow.
Palin is now in 2nd place a mere 2 minutes from the first place team.
Todd Palin is in 3rd place in the Irondog. Yesterday.. they got 7 FEET of snow. They had to stop the race due to conditions. OMG. 7 FEET of freakin snow?! Todays latest news:
The next step for the race is to reset and restart from Unalakleet. Teams will make their way down the coast this morning and get organized for a restart based on their split times from Nome.
The Race Director (Marshall) will make a judgement call once all teams are into Unalakleet to determine the next series of layover times in an effort to get the teams to Fairbanks for a daylight finish. At this time, we are planning for a Sunday finish in downtown Fairbanks around 1 p.m.
————————————- pics and prior thread below —————-
It’s no secret I’m cheering for Team #11 in this year’s Iron Dog race! Todd and his racing partner Eric Quam are doing very well and helping lead the pack as they’ll soon be near the 1000-mile half-way point in Nome. They’ve been breaking trail through three feet of new snow! All these athletes are rugged and tough. Please keep all the racers in your prayers. – Sarah Palin
