Iron Dog welcomes 30 teams ahead of 41st annual race
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Fans of the world’s longest, toughest snowmachine competition got their first glimpse of this year’s race lineup on Wednesday in Wasilla.
The 2025 Iron Dog race pool, consisting of 30 teams, met inside the Menard Center, where racers saw their machines undergo tech inspections and learned their official order at this year’s starting line.
Of the 30 teams competing this year, six racers on five teams return as former champions:
- Mike Morgan (Team 6)
- Tyler Aklestad (Team 7)
- Tyson Johnson (Team 8)
- Bradley George & Robby Schachle (Team 20)
- Cory Davis (Team 21)
After back-to-back runner-up finishes, Team 14’s Casey Boylan and Bryan Leslie hope to join that group.
“There were a lot of things that happened to us that were out of our control,” Boylan said. “Between a broken torsion spring, a shock coming apart, a fire, thermostats and a throttle sticking. All those things cost time.
“(Last year) we were eight minutes behind at Whiskey Bravo (one of the final checkpoints). You take one of those things out, we’re leading at Whiskey Bravo … we’re just trying to clean up those things, stay calm and run the pace we know we can run.”
Other notable lineups include Team 26’s Hillarie and Timothy Gossett, a husband-and-wife duo that thus far has always run the race on separate teams.
“We enjoy being on the trail together,” Timothy said. “Everybody seems to be asking us how’s the marriage going and is it going to last through the race. For us, it’ll all be put at ease when the race starts.”
Team 16 also shares a family connection in the father-daughter combo of Larry and Danielle Levine.
The 41st running of the Iron Dog steps off from Big Lake on Saturday, Feb. 15.
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