Weather-battered Iron Dog racers to resume race today

Battered Iron Dog snowmobilers arrived in Unalakleet throughout the day today as race officials prepared to resume the race at 5 p.m.

The world's longest snowmobile race has been under a yellow caution flag since Thursday morning as the Seward Peninsula was pounded by a vicious storm that brought snow, wind, warmth and plenty of overflow to area creeks and rivers.

Temperatures dipped as the storm passed through, with the National Weather Service calling for minus 10 readings in Unalakleet tonight. At Kaltag, the next checkpoint on the return trip to Fairbanks, the wind chill was expected to hit minus 45 by Saturday morning.

The emergency shutdown and controlled move to Unalakleet on Thursday sliced about 220 miles from the 2,000-mile race from Big Lake to Nome to Fairbanks and pushed back the expected finish, according to race officials.

On Thursday, officials were expecting a midday Sunday finish.

But after meeting with drivers today, they moved the expected finish up to 6 p.m. Saturday. Instead of two mandatory 10-hour layovers and a hold on racers in Tanana the evening before the finish, racers will have just one eight-hour layover.

However, Interior Alaska was being hit with heavy snowfall and strong winds Friday.

Former Iron Dog racer Tommy Kriska of Tanana tried to work on the race trail between Ruby and Tanana during the afternoon.

"Wind is blowing the snow sideways," he wrote on the Iron Dog website. "Whiteout conditions right now. Waiting for the weather to settle down."

At the state high school cross-country skiing championships in Fairbanks, gusts exceeded 50 mph.

The duo of three-time champion Dusty Van Meter of Kasilof and 2008 champion Marc McKenna of Anchorage will be the first team to resume racing. Defending champions Tyler Huntington of Fairbanks and Chris Olds of Eagle River will follow 11 minutes later.

Todd Palin and Eric Quam will depart 13 minutes behind the defending champs.