(Reprinted with permission from the web site of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.)
Saturday, March 20, 1999
By CHRIS TALBOTT
Staff Writer
As he watched dog teams head down two different trails and loose dogs running in two different directions from his vantage point in a helicopter Friday, KIAK radio man Lowell Purcell summed up the first day of the Open North American Championship Sled Dog Race.
"There are teams all over the trail going in the wrong direction," Purcell told his listening audience on 970AM. "We have to be honest with you. We don't know what's going on here."
The pomp and pageantry of the world's oldest and most prestigious open-class sprint race turned to bedlam and confusion Friday when seven of the first eight teams mistakenly took the wrong trail after a saboteur removed a snow fence.
In a situation similar to 1994 when the gate that leads to the golf course was left locked on the first day, race marshal Mike McCowan and the Alaska Dog Mushers Association board decided Friday's results were "null and void." The ONAC will restart today as a two-day race with heats of 20 and 30 miles.
McCowan said that at approximately 10:30 a.m., the fence was set correctly to direct mushers down the 20-mile trail. No one associated with the race touched the fence over the next three hours.
"There's no doubt in my mind we got nuked," McCowan said.
By the end of the day, five teams had run the 30-mile loop usually reserved for Sunday's final heat. Two others had traveled some distance down that trail before turning around. And the remaining 12 racers successfully completed the 20-mile trail with only a little or no difficulty.
Race officials met late into the evening trying to sort through what exactly happened on the trail. After the decision was made, McCowan began calling all 19 racers. Those who decide to scratch before today's restart will get their entry fee refunded.
McCowan knew that the decision would not sit well with many racers, but too many teams were affected to allow Friday's results to stand.
"In '94, I think we only had three teams directly impacted," McCowan said. "This time we had eight or as many as 10, which is roughly half the field."
The confusion began when Jean Boissonneault lost his team while trying to load a swing dog. Trail sweep Bob Pristash, running a few minutes ahead of Boissonneault, turned his snowmachine around and stopped the runaway dogs roughly 10 miles into the race.
As Boissonneault hustled to catch up with his team, the next seven racers passed him and continued down the trail toward the junction where the 20-mile trail passes the 30-mile extension.
That's where drivers found the correct 20-mile turn blocked. Led by Merv Hilpipre, they filed down the 30-mile trail. Many, like former ONAC champion Neal Johnson, recognized they were going the wrong way.
"I knew I was in it probably a half mile into it," the Minnesota musher said. "But the gate was up and everyone else was in it. I figured we'd just all do the 30-mile trail."
Egil Ellis, the pre-race favorite starting in the seventh position, also took the wrong turn. He realized the mistake about two miles in when "the trail took off in the totally wrong way.
"I made a real hard decision," he said. "I stopped the team and thought for a minute. I thought, 'Did I miss something. Are we going 30 miles on the first day?"'
Ellis decided he would not follow the pack ahead of him and began the difficult process of turning his 18-dog team around, which can be a dangerous prospect.
"The hardest part was turning the team around on a trail this wide," he said as he held his arms spread. "That was scary."
On his way back, Ellis and Eddie Dayton executed a clean head-on pass. Dayton had the sneaking suspicion he was on the wrong trail and Ellis quickly confirmed it.
Dayton waited until he could find a tree to hook his 21-dog team to and began the process of reversing. That's when things got tricky. Two of his dogs, Abbie and Alice, pulled loose from both collar and harness and ran off in different directions. He quickly caught one, but the other was nowhere in sight.
"It was insanity," the Big Lake musher said. "I didn't know what in the hell I was going to do."
Dayton moved onto the next checkpoint along the trail and "hopped on a snowmachine," he said. "I chased her down, hooked her back up and decided, 'Heck, I need the money."'
For Dayton and Ellis the race was back on, though their times suffered from all the maneuvering. The next musher down the trail, Fairbanks' Kathy Frost, kept her dogs from turning down the wrong trail, but it was a struggle and she also lost a considerable amount of time as she reset the snow fence.
By the time Frost reached the confused intersection, Boissonneault had regained his team.
"After (running) a mile, two guys had my team," Boissonneault said. "I was very lucky. They were all lined out and ready. I followed Kathy Frost because I knew she knew the trail."
The irony of the situation -- bad luck turned good -- was not lost on Boissonneault: "If I don't lose my team, I run 30 miles."
Frost stopped her team at the intersection and fixed the fence, but the saboteur wasn't done. After Saunderson went through, the fence was again moved into the incorrect position as Curtis Erhart came by.
"I fixed the gate, got tangled up in the fence and finally got out of there," Erhart said. "Bill Kornmuller was running behind me and by the time he got there, somebody had moved the fence again."
Erhart said he may have seen the culprit out on the trail. As he pulled up, he saw a snowmachine in the distance pulling away quickly.
"Somebody was doing this," Erhart said. "... It was probably some kids out there having fun. They don't know they're doing anything bad, they're just having fun."
The fallout was this: Hilpipre, Robert Peebles, Zev Chochinov and Johnson all completed the 30-mile trail. John Wood, who started third, pulled over at the golf course checkpoint and called for his truck. He scratched, but will be given the option of running again today.
Even though the day was a scratch, Johnson considered his team's chances washed up.
"Absolutely," he said when asked if he'd be at a disadvantage. "Anybody who did the 20, there's no way these dogs can run with them."
The ruling seems to put Ellis, Dayton and Frost back in the running despite their troubles Friday. Race organizers didn't release times from the day's run because of all the hubbub, but many finish-line watchers had Ross Saunderson in first with a time of just over 61[1/2] minutes, Joee Ray Redington in second and Curtis Erhart in third.
The ruling didn't sit well with Saunderson and Redington.
"I think unfortunately if it wasn't a club error, it was the wrong decision," Saunderson said. "It could happen (today) again, eh? If it does, when are they going to count the race?
"I just hope it doesn't happen (today)."
© 1999 MediaNews Group, Inc. and Fairbanks Publishing Company, Inc.