Nome, AK (My Sportsbook) - Lance Mackey captured the Iditarod sled dog race for a record fourth time and in successive years, finishing the 1,100- mile journey from Anchorage to Nome 51 seconds shy of nine days. Mackey had joined both Doug Swingley, who captured three straight wins from 1999-2001, and Susan Butcher (1986-88) in Iditarod lore last year. The Fairbanks, Alaska native was a full hour and 30 minutes ahead of his next closest competitor, Hans Gatt, upon leaving the final checkpoint. He rested just four minutes before setting out for the final three-hour, 18-minute leg that covered 22 miles into Nome. Gatt and Jeff King were the only other mushers of the 57 remaining sleds to have left the final checkpoint at the time of Mackey's finish. Seventy-one sleds in all started the journey on March 7th in Anchorage. Gatt took only a minute before heading out of the final checkpoint for the finish line and crossed one hour, four minutes and 53 seconds behind Mackey. The Mackey family has now won six Iditarod races, as his father, Dick, won it in 1978 and his older brother, Rick, captured the 1983 race. |
