Holding the lead

The race couldn’t be much more intense right now as Lance Mackey is holding a 2 hour lead over Jeff King after leaving Koyuk this morning on the way to the final checkpoints of Elim and White Mountain before heading to Nome. Yukon Quest reigning champion Hans Gatt left an hour following King, or 3 hours after Mackey. Lance continued a back and forth of cutting his rest a bit shorter than King did, Mackey stayed in the village of Koyuk for slightly over 3 hours while King and Gatt both took about 4 hours.

Currently in 4th place, Ken Anderson is a total of five hours from leading the pack however out of the seven mushers to arrive at the Norton Sound village so far this morning, he had the quickest pace.

The race for the top ten also includes Ramey Smyth (currently in 8th) recently arriving to Koyuk late this morning, Dallas Seavey (currently in 10th) leaving Shaktoolik early this morning, Ray Reddington Jr (currently 12th), Sonny Linder (13th), and Zach Steer (14th position). DeeDee Jonrowe left Unalakleet at 8am this morning after a 6 hour rest and a very impressive time from Kaltag with being down to eight dogs.

We’re broadcasting tonight and will be also preparing for our finish line broadcast. If you have comments or questions for us to include, please contact us. We will also be “taking calls”, if you have a perspective, observation or thought on this years race and would like to be on-air with us, shoot me an email with the words “finale call-makers” in the subject and include a brief synopsis on what you’d like to add to the discussion.