Race Day 5 – Iditarod
Martin Buser (33) whipped by the leaders while they rested in Takotna and took the lead. He has been hanging back between 30th and 40th place, and then passed them all. He rests on the trail more than at checkpoints and keeps his own schedule. He arrived at Ophir at 7:50pm CDT. The six teams at the back of the race are on the trail between Rohn and Nikolai.
Even though there is $43K in gold nuggets waiting for the first team into Iditarod, it is 90 miles away, so I don’t see Martin rushing to get on the trail.
Teams have to take a 24 hour break at some point, and an 8 hour break at one of the check points on the Yukon, so strategy is kicking in at this point.
The Anchorage Daily News reports that the Cause of dog’s death remains unknown after necropsy. Jeff Holt doesn’t run a racing kennel. Most of his dogs were pets that people couldn’t keep, so he can’t be happy that they can’t find an obvious reason for a healthy 6-year-old dog to just die. They will continue looking.
The Current Standings:
1 Martin Buser (33)
2 Jim Lanier (35)
3 Aaron Burmeister (56)
4 Hugh Neff (55)
5 Sebastian Schnuelle (34)
6 Lance Mackey (47)
7 Jeff King (41)
8 Mitch Seavey (21)
9 Paul Gebhardt (15)
10 Bjornar Andersen (18)
11 John Baker (44)
12 Cim Smyth (37)
13 Aliy Zirkle (24)
14 Dallas Seavey (62)
15 Warren Palfrey (7)
16 Jessie Royer (17)
17 Ramey Smyth (16)
18 Bruce Linton (40)
19 DeeDee Jonrowe (31)
20 Melissa Owens (30)
21 Matt Hayashida (19)
22 Ray Redington Jr (10)
23 Ryan Redington (13)
24 Robert Bundtzen (51)
25 Sven Haltmann (53)
26 Cindy Gallea (49)
27 Karin Hendrickson (29)R
28 Allen Moore (6)
29 Ed Stielstra (46)
30 Mike Williams (39)
31 Jake Berkowitz (12)
32 Harry T Alexie (67)R
33 Jeff Holt (68)
34 Ken Anderson (54)
35 Hans Gatt (25)
36 Ed Iten (4)
37 Gerry Willomitzer (14)
38 Rick Swenson (8)
39 Sonny Lindner (42)
40 Gerald Sousa (36)
41 Rick Larson (5)
42 Linwood Fiedler (28)
43 Judy Currier (22)
44 Chad Lindner (26)R
45 Wade Marrs (48)R
46 Robert Nelson (23)
47 Eric Rogers (60)
48 Tim Osmar (57)
49 Rachael Scdoris (58)
50 Tom Thurston (27)R
51 Laura Daugereau (45)
52 Aaron Peck (2)
53 Michael Suprenant (11)R
54 Bill Cotter (65)
55 David Sawatzky (66)
56 Heather Siirtola (63)
57 Trent Herbst (20)
58 Jen Seavey (61)R
59 Kurt Reich (59)R
60 Timothy Hunt (64)R
61 Lou Packer (43)R
62 Alan Peck (32)R
63 Kim Darst (52)R
64 Blake Matray (9)R
65 Rob Loveman (50)R
