Polaris team wins Iron Dog
Brassard, Lee hold off Carr, Cronquist in 1,971-mile race
FAIRBANKS (AP) -- Tracey Brassard of Anchorage and Ken Lee of Eagle River won the Tesoro Iron Dog 2000 on Saturday with an overall time of 38 hours, 46 minutes, in the world's longest snowmobile race.
A Polaris team, Brassard and Lee saw their 29-minute lead shrink by nine minutes in the final 224-mile leg from Tanana to Fairbanks.
But their run of 3 hours, 27 minutes on the Tanana and Chena rivers was good enough to hold off Mark Carr of Kenai and Kory Cronquist of Eagle River, who drove Ski-Doos and finished in 39 hours, 6 minutes over the 1,971-mile race from Wasilla to Nome to Fairbanks.
It was the first win for Brassard, 36, who has finished the race four times, and Lee, 39, who has finished seven times.
The 2001 version of the race was the fourth over the Wasilla-Nome-Fairbanks route. Brassard and Lee's time was 16 minutes off the record pace set by Carr and Scott Davis of Soldotna in 1999. Brassard and Lee took home $25,000 of the $105,000 purse. Carr and Cronquist split $18,000 in prize money.
An Arctic Cat team of Davis and Kirk Hibbert of Minnesota finished third in 40:49. They earned $14,000. Tyson Johnson of Anchorage and Chris Olds of Eagle River, another Polaris team, finished fifth in 42:48 and collected $8,000. Defending champions Todd Palin of Wasilla and Dusty VanMeter of Kasilof, driving Yamahas, dropped from fourth to sixth place with a last-day run of 5 hours, 24 minutes, and an overall time of 43:20.