And with the wave of the flag for each heat of 2,
THEY'RE OFF!!

UNTIL....
The dreaded breakdown,
If you can't make it to Desedesh, then you are out. If you can,
then you have about an hour to get your sled fixed and ready for the return trip.

And there is 77.5 miles of this kind of territory until you get there,
Here you can see the "sweeper truck" which follows the last sleds off, and picks up any that have broke down.

There are usually lots of broken sleds on the way up
There are many reasons for a sled to quit the race, it could be loss of coolant, blown track or even the horrible meltdown.
The sweeper unloads all the broke sleds at each fuel stop, so they can pick up the rest on the way up to Desedesh.

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