Hometown hero Pete Kaiser held off a surging Matthew Failor by just eight minutes for his seventh Kuskokwin 300 victory on Sunday.
Kaiser, of Bethel, continued to dominate his hometown event — he’s now won seven of the last nine Kusko races — and trails only Jeff King’s nine victories for the all-time record.
Pete Kaiser at the finish line with 11 dogs. Photo courtesy Kerry Cobbledick.
With warm temperatures and fresh snow slowing times, Kaiser had a seemingly safe 24-minute lead at Upper Kalskag on the return trip to Bethel. Then Failor of Willow erased most of that deficit before running out of real estate.
“I got a little comfortable out of Kalskag, kind of feeling like I was probably in more control than I actually was, so we were kind of just coasting along,” Kaiser told KYUK Radio. “And then (Failor) snuck up on us all of a sudden and he was probably six or seven minutes behind.”
Said Failor: “We saved a little bit in the tank on the way up that maybe helped us pass a few teams on the way down. … (But) when you don’t have a lead on Pete at Tuluksak (the final checkpoint), it’s pretty difficult.”
Kaiser, the 2019 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race champion, earned $25,000 for the win that took 41 hours and 56 minutes, the slowest winning time in about 15 years.
Nenana’s Eddie Burke, Jr., placed third in his debut K300.
In the accompanying Akiak Dash 150, Raymond Alexie of Kwethluk claimed his fourth straight win of the season.
Meanwhile, Nic Petit continued his strong season by winning a balmy Willow 300 on Friday in another close race. Petit, formerly of Girdwood but now racing out of Willow, edged Hunter Keefe by 12 minutes with Dan Kaduce 35 minutes behind.
Petit also won the Copper Basin 300 earlier this month and was third at the Knik 200. He will race the Yukon Quest 550 for the first time beginning Saturday.
Mushing with a young team, defending Iditarod champion Brent Sass of Eureka has not won any of the three races he’s entered this season. At the K300, he placed 14th (of 21 starters) more than five hours behind Kaiser. In other races, Sass was second (25 minutes behind Petit) at the Copper Basin 300 and second at the Knik 200 (11 minutes behind Burke, Jr.).
Sass is next registered for the Yukon Quest 550 starting this Saturday, where he is likely to be challenged by Petit, Wade Marrs and Ramey Smyth. The course has been modified to eliminate the Yukon River section due to jumble ice there.
Lurking in the distance is the granddaddy of Alaskan mushing, the Iditarod. Only 34 mushers are registered, but the field has plenty of star power with Kaiser, Petit, Sass, Jessie Holmes, Jessie Royer and others. Notable omissions include past champions Dallas Seavey, Mitch Seavey and Joar Ulsom.
Featured photo by Kerry Cobbledick.