Iditarod Teams Reach Takotna, Zirkle Still Leads

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Iditarod leaderboard made a push for Takotna on Tuesday evening with musher Aliy Zirkle still leading the race standings and past champions trailing in the other spots.

Zirkle checked into McGrath at 8:32 p.m. and left at 8:36 p.m. Tuesday with 16 dogs. She checked in to Takotna thirty minutes before midnight.

As for the rest of the top 5 teams, the time differences are slimming down to the minutes with less than 15 minutes separating each team.

Last year’s champ John Baker and 2004’s champ Mitch Seavey checked into Takotna at the same time at 12:09 a.m. Wednesday.

4-time champ Jeff King checked into Takotna at 12:14 a.m. Wednesday with Dallas Seavey coming in seven minutes later.

For being the first team into McGrath, Zirkle picked up the PenAir Spirit of AK award winning an original “spirit mask” and $500 credit toward travel or freight shipment.

GPS tracking at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday showed 4-time champ Martin Buser getting an early start out of Takotna with his son, Rohn Buser, as the only musher out of McGrath approaching Takotna.

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