Zack Steer of Sheep Mountain, second to arrive, was the first to leave at 6:16 p.m. Hans Gatt, a three-time champion from British Columbia, left at 6:21; four-time winner Lance Mackey of Fairbanks left at 6:22 and Hugh Neff of Tok left at 6:23.
Expect this Gang of Four to battle much of remaining 600 miles before reaching the finish line in Whitehorse next week. The next checkpoint in the 1,000-mile race from Fairbanks to Whitehorse is 99 miles up river from Eagle at Forty Mile.
From Forty Mile, it's 48 miles to Dawson City and a mandatory 36-hour layover.
Gatt was the first to reach Eagle on Tuesday, pulling in at 12:34 p.m. after making the 101-mile push from Slaven's Cabin, the previous checkpoint. Steer joined him five minutes later.
The long river run to Eagle took Gatt 16 hours, 38 minutes. Steer took about two hours longer than Gatt, but that may have no significance. Racers typically stop and rest several times during the journey upriver.
Fifth into Eagle was 60-year-old Sonny Lindner of Fairbanks, winner of the inaugural Quest back in 1984. He arrived nearly three hours behind the lead pack, arriving at 4:30 p.m. A little more than an hour later, a tight pack of three showed up -- Gerry Willometzer at 5:45 p.m., Abbie West at 5:46 and Brent Sass at 5:47.
Three indictors suggested that Mackey's record of 10 days, 7 hours, 47 minutes from Fairbanks to Whitehorse could be in jeopardy:
• Top mushers were already cutting their rest time, perhaps fearful of letting a dominating racer like Mackey get away. Typically, mushers subscribe to the theory of equal rest and run time, but top mushers were cutting between 30 minutes and two hours rest between long runs, an aggressive approach before the halfway break in Dawson City. It's possible, however, that teams had stopped between checkpoints to rest.
• Steer and Mackey set a race record for the fastest time between Circle City and Slaven's. Both covered the 58 miles in 6 hours, 37 minutes, some 16 minutes fast than William Kleedehn's 2006 record for that stretch. In fact, Neff and West also topped the old record.
• The weather wasn't wickedly cold, as it often is. At sunset in Eagle, the temperature was 4 degrees above zero, according to Weather Undergound.
"The goal for many front-runners seems to be to hang very close to the lead, while not actually being the one out front breaking trail," wrote former Quest racer Jon Little on his race blog (http://drtims.com/blog/). "It may bring a slight advantage to the team following behind, on scented trail. But I'm not sure they're all trying to flim-flam each other into going ahead at this point."
Ken Anderson of Fox, a former Quest runner-up, left Slaven's among the top four but had not arrived in Eagle early Tuesday night.
After a mandatory four-hour layover in Eagle, racers ascend the notoriously windy 3,420-foot American Summit, which is often badly side-hilled with wind-hardened snow that's drifted in. Once they descend, mushers head toward the Canadian border before reaching Dawson City, where a 36-hour mandatory layover awaits.
Reach reporter Mike Campbell at mcampbell@adn.com or 257-4329.
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