Jennifer Sterling passes James Castro's Siberian Huskies at the Limited North American. Photo by Dave Partee/SledDogStudio.com
Sub-zero temperatures, wind and longer distances didn’t slow down the leaders on the final day of the Gene’s Chrysler Limited North American Championship sled dog races.
The leaders after two days all pulled away from their challengers in the third and final heat of the three-day race Sunday at the Jeff Studdert Racegrounds.
That means that Jennifer Probert will collect the championship trophies in the four- and six-dog classes, and Jennifer Sterling captured the eight-dog title. Skijoring winners were Andy Warwick in the three-dog class, Kim Wells in the two-dog event and Andy Seitz in the one-dog class.
Probert won the four-dog class by finishing 35 seconds ahead of Scott Campbell after three days of racing, and she finished 42 seconds ahead of Trisha Seibold in the six-dog class.
Probert finished 23 seconds ahead of Campbell on Sunday and posted a three-day time of 45 minutes, 23.5 seconds to earn the winner’s paycheck of $500. Campbell collected $400 for his runner-up finish of 45:58.6. Lena Glahd captured third place in 46:25.5 to pick up $300.
Probert earned another $750 for winning the six-dog class with a three-day time of 57:27.7. Seibold edged Sterling for the runner-up spot with respective times of 58:09.6 and 58:16.9. Seibold grabbed a $600 paycheck and Sterling collected $450.
Sterling added $1,025 to her bank account by winning the eight-dog class by almost two minutes, after an impressive run of 35:47.5 on Sunday’s 12.1-mile course. She had a three-day time of 1:39:24.8.
Christian Taveau took the runner-up spot and picked up a check for $820 with a three-day time of 1:41:21.6.
Seibold held off Egil Ellis and Amanda Byrd to finish in third place, which was worth $615. Seibold finished in 1:42:33.9, while Ellis clocked in at 1:42:39.4 and Byrd finished in 1:43:37.6. Byrd had the third- and fourth-fastest day times on Sunday.
Warwick was the only two-day leader who didn’t gain ground on Sunday, but he had a big enough lead in the three-dog skijoring event that it didn’t matter. Cindy Salmon won the third heat in 28:48.4, but still finished two minutes behind Warwick, who had a two-day time of 1:11:28.4.
Wells was the only two-dog entrant to race all three days and she finished with the fastest time of all skijorers in 1:10:10.4.
Seitz and Kriya Dunlap waged a close battle for the top spot in the one-dog class. Seitz took over the top spot on the second day of racing and beat Dunlap by 12 seconds on Sunday to claim the victory. Seitz finished in 1:14:48.1 and Dunlap had a cumulative time of 1:15:08.
–Originally printed in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner