Cain's Quest 2016: No sleep behind the scenes at race headquarters

As the remaining teams in Cain's Quest 2016 continue to push themselves out on the trail, behind the scenes at the race headquarters in Labrador City, volunteers and staff punch long hours to keep tabs on the snowmobilers 24/7.

"Cain'sQuest, as with many races around the world, doesn'texist without volunteers," said race marshal Keith Canning.

• Full coverage: Cain's Quest 2016

Along with six paid staff, Canningisone of the 400-odd volunteers across Labrador donating their time tothe race.

"It would be financially impossible to run this type of effort without volunteers,Thevolunteers are just fabulous, fantastic people, Can't say enough about 'em," said Canning.

Those 400 people have been busysince the racebegan March 4,with 37 teams attempting to be the first to navigate the3,500-kilometre circuit over a range of punishing terrain, expected to endthis coming Friday back where it startedin Labrador City..

Until then,Canning may as well call the headquarters home,logging14 hours a dayin the small trailer filled with ringing phones and computer monitors, overseeing every aspect of the race.

Scratches and screens

One of the calls that comes in Tuesday morning is from an exhausted Team 98, the Nui Boys, in Hopedale.

Canning speaks to them briefly: mechanical troubles hadforced anend totheir Cain's Quest.Another volunteer draws the thick blue line through their entry on the board, and with that, the team is officially scratched from the race.

David Hawse, a race monitor, logs that into thecomputerin front of him toupdatethe official websitethat thousands of fans are glued to.

Hawse has three screens at his desk, with all manner of topical maps and trackers laying out every move the racers make, in real time, thanks to the small, yellow GPS units each racer is required to carry.

"There's so much information that I have got in front of me," said Hawse.

"We can see exactly what the GPS is doing. The temperatures, the battery life of the GPSthe speed limits, why are they slowing down, which way are they going, and actually making sure they'resafe," said Hawse.

Search and rescue

That vital information has already come in handy once, just hours after the race began.

As Hawse watched the teams speed away from Labrador City, he noticed Team Nord Cotierwas stopped, and had activatedtheemergency beacon on itsGPS.

"We opened up the GPS on this screen, and started to speak to them, to ask them if there's any injuries. And they came back that they were stuck in slob," said Hawse.

"We instructed them to bed down, geta fire going and we'd get search and rescue."

That instant communication led to a swift emergency response, and the two racers made it back to safetyrelatively unscathed, although they had to scratch from the race.

Laying down the law

It's a job for Keith Canning and his teamto make sure every snowmobilerabides bythe Cain's Quest rulebook, no matter how far away from civilization they might be.

"The infractions can range from anything like unsportsmanlike conduct, speeding in a speed-defined zone, those sorts of things. It could even include environmental damage," said Canning.

"Even though this is an extreme race, we still have to respect the environment and not leave garbage strewn across Labrador."

In addition to analyzing thecomputer data, Canning has volunteers on the race circuit keeping an eye on competitors, although he's tight lipped about exactly who they are, and what methods they use as surveillance.

"Becauseit's possible ifyouhad some pretty creative people out there, they could do some things using their imaginations to circumvent some of those systems," said Canning. "But I've never seen that."

If the team does uncover a possible rule-breaker, Canning has 12 hours to assess the situation and rule whether there should be a penalty, such as additional time added to their total.

As much as the phone in headquartersrings for Canning, such penalties are far and few between, even with the 37 teams in this year's Cain's Quest, the most competitors ever.

"The sportsmanlike conduct in the field is just something to behold. Something to be nationally proud of," he said.

With that,the phone rings again, and Canningand the volunteers turn back to the screens to keepCain`s Quest running smoothly, behind the scenes.

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