After nearly two decades of competing at the Gene’s Chrysler Limited North American Championships, Pennsylvania’s Rob Downey finally won.
Downey beat out defending eight-dog champ Christian Taveau on Sunday to take the title.
“Like my dad always said ‘The blind squirrel finds the acorn once in a while,’” Downey laughed to well-wishers after the race.
Taveau, a formidable opponent from France who now lives in Willow, won Friday’s heat while Downey took the top spot on Day 2. Coming into Sunday’s final, it was still anyone’s race.
“I wasn’t looking over my shoulder because I knew my team was running well enough,” Downey said. “I did peak back at the top of the hill here because I’ve had too many teams catch me on that stretch.”
Downey has been gunning for a win for many years and has finished third in the past two LNAC eight-dog events, but Sunday was his first taste of North American victory.
“Maybe this was just my year because I’ve had the same leaders up there for the last four years,” he said.
“Vito and Vinnie, they’re brothers and they’re not very well built, but they’re all heart,” Downey said of his lead dogs. “When we retire them, we’re going to have to retire them together because they’re the only ones who can tolerate each other.”
Last weekend, Downey’s son won the four-dog class at the Junior North American.
“Everyone was giving me a hard time that it was finally good to see a Downey name at the top of a North American board, so that put a little added pressure on me.
“I knew this wasn’t going to be easy because Christian’s got a good dog team and he wasn’t going to roll over and let me have it.”
Sunday, Downey had a flawless run despite coming across a couple recreational skijorers on the trail. They got out of the way and Downey kept on going.
“It wasn’t a big deal, but I saw them and my heart sank,” he said, adding that it hardly slowed him down.
Downey will stay in the state for the Tok Race of Champions before heading back to Pennsylvania.
As for Taveau, he was out to defend his title, but was content with how his team finished.
“It was a little warm for my dogs, but second place is good,” Taveau said.
In the one-dog skijor event, Fairbanks veteran Jim Herriges won with nearly a nine-minute gap on his closest opponent overall.
“Everyone had trouble on Friday with the heat but then it got cooler, which was good for the dogs but the trail was icy so it was tough for skiing,” Herriges said Sunday. “Today it was a little bit better and my dog Lena was fired up on all three days.”
Herriges said he hadn’t planned on racing in the LNAC as Lena had knee surgery this summer and he wasn’t sure she’d recover.
“I entered her in a skijor-club race earlier this year and she was just so ecstatic that I decided to race this,” Herriges said, adding that he has four dogs total and he’s been skijoring for about 12 years.
Fairbanks’ Jennifer Probert took home top spots in the four-dog and six-dog classes. And, she said, winning never gets old.
“Especially not today, it was tough today,” Probert said. “It was so hot and the trail was so icy, so I was really trying to take it easy.
“I was really proud of them.”
Brian Charlton won the three-dog skijor while Kriya Dunlap, fighting a bout with the flu, won the two-dog class.
Though many mushers and skijorers didn’t get to savor the sweet taste of victory this weekend, there were many personal triumphs over the three-day event for both man and beast.
For Wendy Callis of Fairbanks, who finished sixth overall in the six-dog class, she tried a rookie yearling in lead Sunday for the final day of competition. It was a dog that had never raced and had only run in lead twice in training, Callis said. “She made it around,” she said, adding that most of her team is under two years old.
“I was pleasantly surprised they did so well,” said Callis, who has been running dogs for 28 years.
For Marya Lewanski, she was using the LNAC to test out a new sled she got for Christmas. Lewanski finished 15th in six-dog class.
“It’s been hot so that makes it tough, but I’ve never ran the six-dog class before so I decided at the last minute to do this to see how the dogs would do,” she said. “Hopefully next year I’ll do a little better.”
From warm weather to moose encounters, there are many factors that can take precious time out on the trail and in sprint mushing, seconds, even fractions of seconds, definitely matter. But that’s what makes the sport so exciting, said race marshal Mike McCowan.
“It was very good racing this year and some very close races,” he said. “We’ve had some new people that have never raced before and I think that most people will walk away with a pretty good taste in their mouths.
“Even if people aren’t out to win, they’re still racing in their own way and are trying to get the best performance they can out of the dogs.”
Next on the mushing slate is the GCI Open North American Friday through Sunday in downtown Fairbanks. Spectators should be aware that the course will no longer go through the golf course; so viewing opportunities there are no longer available.
–Originally printed in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner