Photo by freelancer
THE PICTURE OF TOGETHERNESS – Mushers pose for a photo following Thursday’s Start and Draw Banquet at the Westmark Hotel in downtown Fairbanks. Top row, left to right: Jason Campeau, Pat Noddin, Dave Dalton, Cody Strathe, Allen Moore. Bottom row, left to right: Michelle Phillips, Brent Sass, Torsten Kohnert, Nora Sjalin, Rob Cooke, Chase Tingle, Ryne Olson, Denis Tremblay. Not present: Richie Beattie and Olivia Shank-Neff. Photo by LAURA STICKELLS/News-Miner
The 15 mushers attempting the 37th running of the Yukon Quest 1,000 Mile International Sled Dog Race drew for their bib numbers and starting positions on Thursday night at the Quest’s Start and Draw Banquet at the Westmark Hotel in downtown Fairbanks.
FAIRBANKS – The 15 mushers attempting the 37th running of the Yukon Quest 1,000 Mile International Sled Dog Race drew for their bib numbers and starting positions on Thursday night at the Quest’s Start and Draw Banquet at the Westmark Hotel in downtown Fairbanks.
Forty-six-year-old Yukon Quest veteran Richie Beattie, of Two Rivers, Alaska, will be leading the pack out of Fairbanks.
“I really dig it .... It’s nice to get out ahead of things,” Beattie said after taking an official photo with bib No. 1.
The Quest will be Beattie’s first since 2007, when he finished 16th with the team of dogs he first started mushing with. He also raced in 2006 and finished ninth.
“Those couple Quests gave me a pretty good understanding of what I would need in a dog team to do really well in the Quest,” Beattie said.
“I spent a long time carefully, selectively breeding up this team and training them for this type of event.”
He raced the Iditarod for the first time last year with his new team and, according to Beattie, they were “excellent.” He finished 21st and earned the Rookie of the Year title.
Rounding out the pack of Quest mushers will be defending Quest champion Brent Sass.
“It is what it is. If it was a shorter race, it would be a little bit more disappointing, but we’ve got 1,000 miles to go and in the end it doesn’t really make much difference,” Sass said after drawing bib No. 15.
The start differential will be subtracted from each of the musher’s initial four-hour mandatory layover, which they can take at either the Mile 101 or Central checkpoint.
“It just means I have to wait longer at the start chute and my dogs will get some passing practice,” Sass added.
Jason Campeau, the 12th musher to take the stage, drew No. 3.
“To be honest, it’s been really hectic getting here,” Campeau said.
He was referring to a fire that burned down his house in Rocky Mountain, Alta., last year and his recovering from a concussion that he sustained when he last ran the Quest in 2017.
“I’ll be more excited once I’m out there and in the zone with my dogs, but until then there’s still a lot of moving parts right until the start line.”
The race will start at 11 a.m. Saturday (noon Yukon time) in downtown Fairbanks. Teams will start in three-minute intervals.
Yukon Quest start order:
By Laura Stickells
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
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Steven D Barry on Feb 2, 2020 at 8:57 am
Godspeed! Go Cody Go!!!!