Entries for the 2001 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race closed Friday with the 1,100-mile adventure from Anchorage to Nome looking at a field approaching the record 97 that signed for the millennium contest this year.

''We have 85, and I know of one that is in the mail,'' said race director Joanne Potts.

The March 3 race is still accepting entries postmarked on or before Dec. 1.

Not so for the 2,000-mile Iron Dog 2001 snowmobile race from Big Lake to Nome to Fairbanks.

Full-up was the description Iron Dog race spokeswoman Harriet Fenerty used Friday to describe the state's other high-profile ultradistance endurance race.

The Iron Dog, she said, still has openings for 20 trail riders interested in following the race trail from Nome to Fairbanks, but the 64 slots reserved for professional teams of two -- racers must pair up for safety -- have been filled.

The Iron Doggers leave Big Lake Feb. 18 in pursuit of about $105,000 in prize money, but the big news is that the team of Mark Carr of Kenai and Scott Davis of Soldotna won't be back. Carr and Davis owned the Iron Dog from 1997-1999 and managed to grab second last year despite being plagued with mechanical problems.

After four straight years together, however, they've split.

But, they'll be back, too.

Fenerty said Davis is teaming this year with Arctic Cat engineer Kirk Hibbert of Thief River Falls, Minn., home for the Arctic Cat family, while Carr has joined Corey Cronquist on the Ski-Doo team.

Cronquist, whose family owns C & C Ski-Doo in Eagle River, has been trying for most of the decade to put a Ski-Doo at the front of the 17-year-old race. The Canadian manufacturer has never won despite wide success in snowmobile racing elsewhere.

Cronquist has crept closer to the winner's circle each year, but he and Carr will face experienced and trail-tough competition this year not only from the factory-backed Arctic Cat team of Davis and Hibbert, but from a small mob of competitors on Polarises and a contingent of Yamahas led by defending champs Todd Palin of Wasilla and Dusty Van Meter of Kasilof.

Strong on their own, Palin and Van Meter are backed up by a second Yamaha team of Dan Zipay of Anchorage and Bob Gilman of Wasilla, another pair of former Iron Dog champs.

The pack of 15 Polaris teams is led by John Faeo of Wasilla and Evan Booth of Nome. Faeo has finished first six times, his last victory in 1996. Booth has finished in front twice, the last in 1994.

The Iron Dog includes a host of other experienced long-distance racers, but only two racers from Outside -- Hibbert and Joe Mueller from Washington -- and only eight from the Alaska Bush.

That gives this year's Iron Dog something in common with this year's Iditarod. The latter has only eight Bush entrants, too. That compares to the 10 Iditarod mushers coming from Outside, including four from Montana, home of two-time defending Iditarod champ Doug Swingley of Lincoln.

Bush residents -- whether they race petrol-breathing iron dogs or 11,000-calories-per-day, food-inhaling hairy dogs -- say it is difficult to find the resources to compete. There are few businesses to solicit for sponsorships in the Bush.

And businesses with significant money to invest -- companies such as Seattle-based clothier Eddie Bauer or Wasilla-based Nye Frontier Ford -- prefer to put their money behind successful mushers who are easily available to make personal appearances in the off-season.

Bauer thus sponsors established Iditarod contender DeeDee Jonrowe of Willow. Nye boasts former Iditarod champ Martin Buser of Big Lake.

Both are among the 85 mushers signed up for the Iditarod this year. They are expected to be in the chase with a mix of other past Iditarod champs and a number of experienced racers from the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race, the 1,000-mile race from Fairbanks to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.

Both the 2000 Quest winner, Aliy Zirkle of Willow, and the runner-up, Thomas Tetz from Carcross, Yukon Territory, are entered in March's Iditarod. They head a field of 30 rookies.

''We've got some Iditarod rookies who aren't really rookies,'' Potts said. ''We're going to have some real competition for rookie of the year.''

There should be some real competition to be the first woman to Nome, too.

Jonrowe, who has spent the last several years keeping her eyes focused on trying to beat the men and several times coming close, might have some reason to check the backtrail this year.

Along with Zirkle back there will be Jessica Royer of Ennis, Mont. She spent time in her formative years studying in the dog yards of former champs Swingley and Jeff King of Denali Park. Zirkle has won Montana's Race to the Sky and impressed many on the way to a second-place finish in the 2000 Copper Basin 300 last winter.

She ended up only five minutes behind winner Paul Gebhardt of Kasilof. Gebhardt went on from the Copper Basin to finish second in this year's Iditarod behind Swingley.

Buoyed by that success, Gebhardt will be back to try for the top spot. So will King, Jonrowe, Buser, former champ Rick Mackey of Nenana, Swingley and five-time Iditarod victor Rick Swenson of Two Rivers, who is still looking to become the only musher to win an Iditarod in every decade since the race began in 1973.

Outdoors editor Craig Medred can be reached at cmedred@adn.com.

2001 Iditarod entrants

Ryan Redington (R), Wasilla; G.B. Jones (R), Meadow Lakes; Ben Gray (R), Palmer; Gwen Holdman (R), Fairbanks; Rick Mackey, Nenana; Ray Redington Jr. (R), Fairbanks; Wayne Curtis, Wasilla; John Baker, Kotzebue; Mike Williams, Akiak; Rick Swenson, Two Rivers; David Straub (R), Willow; Ramy Brooks, Healy; DeeDee Jonrowe, Willow; Juan Alcina, Willow; Andy Moderow (R), Anchorage; Daniel Govoni, Big Lake; Mark May, North Pole; Lynda Plettner, Big Lake; Michael Suman (R), Houston; Paul Gebhardt, Kasilof; Danny Seavey (R), Seward; Mitch Seavey, Seward; Dan Seavey, Seward; Hans Gatt, Atlin, British Columbia.

Jerry Riley, Nenana; Vern Halter, Willow; Martin Buser, Big Lake; Judy Merritt (R), Moose Pass; Michael Nosko, Willow; Bob Morgan, Wasilla; Devan Currier (R), Wasilla; Jim Lanier, Chugiak; John Dixon, Fairbanks; Jon Little, Kasilof; Jeff King, Denali; Jason Halseth (R), Point Hope; Robert Bundtzen, Anchorage; Peryll Kyzer, Willow; Linwood Fiedler, Willow; John Barron, Willow; Aaron Burmeister, Nome; Doug Swingley, Lincoln, Mont.; Sonny King, Spartanburg, S.C.; Karen Ramstead (R), Perryvale, Alberta; Charlie Boulding, Manley; Cindy Gallea, Seeley Lake, Mont.; Jessica Royer (R), Ennis, Mont.; Bill Cotter, Nenana; Ramey Smyth, Big Lake.

Jann Faust (R), Colorado Springs, Colo.; Nils Hahn, Eislingen, Germany; Aliy Zirkle (R), Two Rivers; Art Church, Willow; Russell Lane, Point Hope; Joran Freeman, North Pole; Lance Mackey (R), Kasilof; Ted English, Willow; Palmer Sagoonick (R), Shaktoolik; Wally Robinson (R), Healy; Bruce Moroney, Chugiak; Buck Church (R), Christmas Valley, Ore.; Thomas Tetz (R), Carcross, Yukon Territory; Roy Monk, England; Paul Pettyjohn (R), hometown not given; Bob Chlupach, Willow; Beth Manning (R), Willow; Pedro Esteban Curuchet, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina; Morten Fonesca (R), Thisted, Denmark; Clinton Warnke (R), Christopher, Saskatchewan; Jerome Longo, Talkeetna; Max Hall, Manchester, England; Ron Koczaja (R), Kwethluk; Rob Carss, Cochrane, Alberta; Dave Tresino, Talkeetna.

Stephen Carrick, Castle Hill, New South Wales, Australia; Tim Osmar, Ninilchik; Gerald Sousa (R), Talkeetna; Chuck King (R), Tempe, Ariz.; Ed Iten, Kotzebue; Stacy Tostenson (R), Talkeetna; Anna Bondarenko, Chugiak; Paul Ellering, Gray Eagle, Minn.; Shane Goosen, Wasilla; Nikolai Ettyne, Russia.

2001 Tesoro Iron Dog entrants

Pro Class -- Ken Harding, Anchorage/Gary Egrass, McGrath; Mike Brown, Anchorage/Chris Michaelson, Anchorage; Andy George, Wasilla/JD Palin, Wasilla; Jack Bronner, Anchorage/Mike Lindeen, Anchorage; Davis Harris, Anchorage/Paul Sindorf, Palmer; Tyson Johnson, Skwentna/Chris Olds, Eagle River; Todd Palin, Wasilla/Dusty Van Meeter, Kasilof; Shane Barber, Willow/Stevan White, Willow; Peter Reich, Kotzebue/Brent Schuerch, Kiana; Randy Kangas, Fairbanks/Earl Sommer, Fairbanks; Tracey Brassard, Anchorage/Ken Lee, Eagle River; Bill

Boulch, Wasilla/Dave Stoddard, Anchorage; Greg Pearce, Chugiak/Joe Mueller, Washington; Tim Kriska, Koyukuk/Cliff Terwilliger, Anchorage.

Scott Davis, Soldotna/Kirk Hibbert, Minnesota; Charles Baird, Eagle River/Steve Foster, Big Lake; Bob Gilman, Wasilla/Dan Zipay, Anchorage; Evan Boothe, Nome/John Faeo, Wasilla; Jorge Simmons, Tok/Shawn Champagne, Tok; Jackie Page, Wasilla/Jennifer Kahler, Palmer; Craig Hill, Galena/Marlene Marshall, Galena; Curtis Cherrier, Anchorage/Jim McCallen, Anchorage; Jack Klayum, Chugiak/Eric Quam, Eagle River; Harold Lambert, Kotzebue/Unch Schuerch, Kotzebue; Warren Bumgarner, Eagle River/Kevin Goard, Anchorage; Archer Bishop, Talkeetna/Thompson Bishop, Talkeetna.

Trail Class -- Tom Anderson, Anchorage/Trygve Erickson, Anchorage/Mike Nichols, Anchorage; Joe Nosko, North Pole/Ted Wingerter, Fairbanks; Andy Sherba, Wasilla/Kay Sutherland, Anchorage; Ron Brooks, Anchorage/John Estabrook, Anchorage/John Glass, Palmer/Peter Ljubicich, Anchorage/Ray Michaelson, Palmer; Ben Bailey, Anchorage/Bert Bailey, Big Lake/Scott Powell, Anchorage/Cathy Powell, Anchorage; Daniel Neill, Eagle River/Dwight Neill, Eagle River; Tony Lee, Wasilla/Nathan Lewis, Palmer.