Martin Buser pulled into Takotna first Tuesday night at 8:16. Lance Mackey followed him about an hour and a half later with Sebastian Schnuelle 18 minutes behind him. At 11:15 p.m. all three were reported still in the village.

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NIKOLAI -- The blur doubling as the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race continued to threaten race records on Tuesday, and it was no surprise who's leading the speedsters.

Big Lake's Martin Buser, the fastest musher in Iditarod history, checked into McGrath at 5:55 p.m. Tuesday behind 16 dogs. Nome is still more than 700 miles away, but Buser was off to the next checkpoint of Takotna a minute later.

"This is his baby to win or lose," declared Hugh Neff of Tok earlier in Nikolai.

"I saw him out there, dude, and he came flying by both times. So right now he's the one to watch. But you know, it's early. Sometimes if you go too fast, it can wear dogs out.

"He's got genetically faster dogs than the rest of us. Martin's got the record for this race and he's going to be tough to beat."

Four-time defending champion Lance Mackey of Fairbanks reached McGrath at 7:27 p.m., with Sebastian Schnuelle of Whitehorse arriving 10 minutes later. Both were quickly back on the trail.

Nine years ago, Buser set the Iditarod record with the race's first sub-nine-day finish -- 8 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes -- to notch his fourth victory. That year he reached McGrath at 7:37 p.m. Tuesday, so he's more than two hours ahead of record pace.

Hans Gatt of Whitehorse, the runner-up last year, agreed that Buser is rolling.

"I don't think with that team he can do much wrong."

A day ago, it looked like plenty could go wrong. As Buser passed Jamaican musher Newton Marshall between Finger Lake and Rainy Pass, the teams tangled and Buser had to turn some dogs loose to fix the mess. Fellow musher Ken Anderson caught two of them and hooked them into his team until he caught up to a waiting Buser at the checkpoint. Even that mishap, which could have forced a scratch had Buser's dog not been recovered, didn't hurt him much.

"It was not really lost time," Buser said. "I fed and watered the dogs while I was waiting."

Once the Big Lake musher had all his dogs, the hard-packed trail offered an advantage.

"I like it hard and fast," he said. "It's pretty skookum all right -- probably one of the best ever.

"If you have soft, punchy trail, the light guys have a huge advantage. They don't want to talk about it, but the heavy guys always have a disadvantage on a soft trail."

Buser said he's 5-foot-10 and 205 pounds.

The next stretch of trail, just 18 miles to Takotna, has long been considered a reliable mid-race test of speed. Because the distance is short, mushers seldom stop en route. Buser's speed into McGrath was considerably faster than either Mackey or Schnuelle.

Buser pulled into Takotna at 8:16 p.m. after a surprisingly pedestrian trip at 7.7 mph -- considerably slower that some of his earlier runs. Did Buser take it easy or run into trouble?

After Takotna, the Iditarod Trail heads into the most remote portion of the race's southern route, which is being used this year. A 25-mile run from Takotna to the ghost town of Ophir precedes a long 90-mile slog to the abandoned mining town of Iditarod and another 65-mile run before the trail reaches a populated town, Shageluk.

The quality of the trail and the work of the trailbreakers ahead of him may determine if Buser can maintain, or even expand, his lead.

Buser maintains it's still too early to be mentioning records.

"I think we haven't been here this early in a long time," Buser said. But the southern route always has some "southern surprises" for mushers.

To guard against those surprises, Buser appeared to be pushing hard to forge a gap between him and the chase group. A lead that was 38 minutes out of Nikolai had grown to 92 minutes into McGrath.

Trio of mushers out

Three mushers scratched Tuesday.

Nome musher Melissa Owens, 21, injured her leg before the Iditarod and re-injured it during the race. She spent 13 hours at the Rainy Pass checkpoint before deciding to pull out.

In 2008, Owens became the youngest woman to start the Iditarod and the first woman from Nome to finish. She was cheered by a big hometown crowd that year when she crossed under the burled arch in 30th place.

Zoya DeNure, 34, also scratched in Rainy Pass, saying she believed it was the right decision for her 15-dog team.

Kasilof musher Paul Gebhardt scratched in the early afternoon after arriving in Nikolai with three dogs in his sled.

Kyle Hopkins reported from Nikolai and Mike Campbell from Anchorage.