Defending champ looms as top 3 Kusko mushers head toward finish

As the trio of mushers at the front of the Kuskokwim 300 sled dog race prepared Saturday night for a stretch run to the Bethel finish line, who could blame Brent Sass of Eureka, Jessie Holmes of Nenana and Ray Redington Jr. of Wasilla if they glanced nervously over their shoulders.

Right there they'd find Pete Kaiser, the two-time defending Kusko champion, the Bethel racer who's particularly tough on his home turf, and the musher who's given his dogs a little more rest earlier in the world's richest middle-distance race.

Last year, Kaiser left the Kalskag checkpoint, about 100 miles from the Bethel finish line, trailing Sass by 30 minutes — only to run him down and win by eight minutes.

But this year, Kaiser may need those eight minutes.

Sass pulled into Kalskag at 5:19 p.m. Saturday, 37 minutes ahead of Holmes, with Redington another four minutes back and Kaiser 45 minutes behind Redington.

But Kaiser has a couple of things in his favor. His dogs made the 30-mile run from Kalskag to Aniak 24 minutes faster than any other musher, perhaps an indicator of more raw speed. Plus, Kaiser banked an extra hour of rest for his team in Kalskag — meaning he's not required to take as much as the others on the return trip to Bethel.

"There's no lack of competition (here)," noted Kaiser.

Brutally low temperatures persisted, with Aniak reporting minus 33 degrees early Saturday night.

"I kind of figured it wouldn't warm up that much — it was probably 40 to 50 below all the way up from Bethel last night," Kaiser told KYUK radio of Bethel (www.kyuk.org)  in Aniak. "But it's nice to have snow. I'd take snow every day over glare ice — or water."

Richie Diehl of Aniak, one of Kaiser's closest friends, said he usually expects ice or overflow during the Kusko, and this year's below zero temperatures weren't awful. They just meant he had to swing his arms in circles or jump up and down when he started to go numb.

"It is what it is," Diehl said. "Not much you can do about it, just deal with it."

Holmes, 34, is the new name in the lead pack. A native of Alabama, Holmes said he moved to Alaska and started using sled dogs on his trapline before becoming interested in competitive mushing about six years ago.

After winning last year's Yukon Quest 300 — the middle-distance companion of the ultramarathon between Whitehorse and Fairbanks — in record time, Holmes, 34, focused on the world's richest middle-distance race, which offers a much fatter $150,000 purse.

"I started from the ground up," said Holmes, who also runs ultramarathons and has appeared on the National Geographic show "Life Below Zero."

He called the Kusko 300 as "the toughest race out there.

Nineteen of the 20 mushers who started Friday night remained in the race; only Rob Cooke had scratched.

Bogus Creek 150

Earlier Saturday, Lewis Pavilla, 40, of Kwethluk delivered a ferocious closing kick to pass rookie Maurice Andrews and make history as the first four-time winner of the Bogus Creek 150, a companion race to the Kuskokwim 300.

Pavilla came from 18 minutes behind at the final checkpoint of Tuluksak to pass Andrews during the four-hour run to the finish line.

Pavilla earned $7,500 for his victory, and passed three-time champion Jackie Larson to become the winningest musher in Bogus Creek history.

"It feels good, a little frostbitten all over my face, I lost my dry face mask somewhere back there," Pavilla told KYUK Radio in Bethel (www.kyuk.org). "It was challenging trying to cook with propane because the propane (stoves) were frozen up so we had to cook with fire," said Pavilla.

Tegan Hanlon in Bethel contributed to this report.