The Iron Dog, which bills itself as the "World's Longest, Toughest Snowmobile Race," in 2016 will be more lucrative for the winners.
The race on Monday announced it will boost the first-place prize in the 2,031-mile race to $65,000, an increase of $15,000 from the 2015 event.
"It was time to give back to the racers, and the Board of Directors unanimously agreed that an increase in the cash prize was overdue,'' Iron Dog executive president Kevin Kastner said in a news release.
Eric Quam and Scott Faeo shared the $50,000 first-place purse in the 2015 Iron Dog, which featured a total of nearly $255,000 in purses and prizes -- $130,000 in prize money went to the first five finishing teams, and nearly $125,000 in contingency prizes, in money and goods, also was awarded.
The Iron Dog has not yet revealed the total amount of purses and prizes for 2016, and said it typically unveils that number in January.
The race features a ceremonial start in Anchorage, a re-start in Big Lake, a first leg from Big Lake to Nome and a final leg from Nome to Fairbanks. During that span, 50 hours in layovers are built into the event to give racers adequate rest and time to make repairs to their sleds.
The 2016 race schedule has set the ceremonial start for Feb. 20, with the finish scheduled for Feb. 27.
The Iron Dog began in 1984. Faeo's father, John, and Scott Davis have each won the race a record seven times. The race features two-man teams – each racer must have his own sled – for safety purposes in the event a sled breaks or a rider suffers injury.