Aili sets quick pace in Can-Am 250 win Sled dog race’s old mark beaten by 14 minutes

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ALLAGASH – Twenty-six-year-old Keith Aili sprinted to the finish line Sunday night and smashed the race record in winning the ninth Can-Am Crown International Sled Dog Race.

It was Aili’s first championship in three attempts.

Aili of Ray, Minn., finished at 10:22 p.m. Sunday, 14 minutes ahead of the old mark set by Donald Hibbs of Millinocket in 1999.

Aili was 24 minutes ahead of Stan Passananti from Ely, Minn., when he left Allagash at 4:13 p.m. The pair had been averaging 10 mph in the 250-mile race.

Matt Weik of Remer, Minn., was third into Allagash Sunday afternoon, three hours and one minute behind Aili. Martin Massicotte of St. Tite, Quebec, was in fourth place, seven minutes in back of Weik. Aili and Passananti were leading the largest field ever to enter the 250-mile classic, the largest sled dog race east of the Mississippi.

The weekend of sled dog races also included a 60-mile race and a 30-miler. The three races included 77 teams of mushers, the largest field ever at Fort Kent. The MBNA 250-mile race had 27 mushers registered, also its biggest field ever.

“I’m optimistic, but I really have to work hard from here to Fort Kent,” Aili said while having lunch at Allagash Sunday afternoon. “My dogs are better climbers than Stan’s and there are a lot of hills between here and Fort Kent.”

The two men are friends. A few weeks ago, Passananti beat Aili at the Upper Peninsula Race, a 200-mile race in Michigan. Aili had won the race the previous three years.

The two men dodged each other from the start Saturday morning. Aili was first into the first checkpoint at Portage, and then Passananti was ahead into the second checkpoint at Big Machias Lake, 85 miles from Fort Kent. The two men blew through Big Machias Lake checkpoint, taking six minutes each to sign in and sign out. Aili took the lead again before the Maibec checkpoint, which has a number of hills on the trail.

Aili was first out of Maibec’s, 30 minutes ahead of Passananti. Passananti made up six minutes of that time on the fast 43-mile trail to Allagash.

The hard-packed trail was fast during the weekend race. Lead teams were averaging more than 10 mph during most stretches. The arrivals at the Allagash checkpoint were the fastest ever.

“I wish it wasn’t a race,” Aili said. “It’s just great being out there with the dogs in this weather and environment.”

The weather was ideal for the dogs, real cold Saturday night and rather cool on Saturday. Sunday warmed up, but the leaders were on a mandatory four-hour layover at Allagash during the warm afternoon.

Aili raises his own dogs; it’s how he makes his living, along with guiding bear hunters. He operates an 80-dog kennel. Illness kept Aili out of the running two years ago, and he was second at Fort Kent last year.

Passananti operates a sled dog adventure trip business and is a housing contractor. Most of his dogs were purchased from Doug Swingley, a Minnesota musher who is a major competitor in Alaska’s famed Iditarod, which also started Saturday. This race was Passananti’s first appearance at Fort Kent.

Volunteers at Big Machias Lake were surprised at about 3 a.m. when a team arrived at the checkpoint without a musher. Karen Land of Sand Coulee, Mont., lost control of her team on a corner, three miles from the checkpoint. She tried to hold on a line when the team bolted, but the line slipped from her hands after she was dragged for a ways.

Just a short distance behind Land, musher Rita Lensing arrived and gave the weeping Land a ride. She was surprised to find her team at the checkpoint.

“I overshot the turn and the dogs got tangled,” she said when arriving at the checkpoint. “This has never happened to me before. It’s an awful feeling.”

“I just told her to get on and start pedaling,” Lensing said. “This kind of thing happens to mushers.”

By Sunday afternoon, three teams had scratched from the 250-mile race. The 2000 champion, Don Hibbs of Millinocket, scratched before the start because some of his dogs fell sick during the night. Shawn Graham of Fort Kent scratched at Portage and Andre Martin, a four-time champion of the race, scratched at Maibec, about 140 miles into the race.

Boyd Wilson of Marmora, Ontario, won the Key Bank 60-mile race with a time of 5 hours, 54 minutes, 25 seconds. Eric Laforce of Lanorie, Quebec, was second, a little less than eight minutes behind the leader.

Steve Johnson of Haurlock, Ontario, won the 30-mile Pepsi Cola/Budweiser race with a time of three hours, seven minutes, 48 seconds. Carl Deblois of Frampton, Quebec, was second, just six seconds behind Johnson.

In the 30-mile race, Jane Sutherland caught her foot in the braking mechanism and fell, fracturing a collarbone. She was about 200 feet from the finish line.

Sled Dog Racing

LOCAL

At Fort Kent

Can-Am Crown Sled Dog Races

KBC 60

Boyd Wilson (Marmora, Ontario) 5:54.25, Eric LaForce (Lanorie, Quebec) 6:02.07, Marcil Drouin (Embrun, Ont.) 6:14.17, Michel Dinelle (L?Ange, Ont.) 6:21.17, Francois Julien (Pout Range, Que.) 6:32.12, Claude Baril (St. Zenon, Que.) 6:33.00, Paul Boudreau (St. Gerard, Que.) 6:57.01, Sebastian Nault (Val David, Que.) 7:01.56, Mike Johnson (Leroy, Michigan) 7:21.38, Bill Foster (Poland) 7:30.51, Scott Shaw (Stirling, Ont.) 7:48.26, Larry Murphy (Fort Kent) 8:06.24, Duane Ramsey (Inverary, Ont.) 8:08.53, Stephane Massicotte (St. Prespor, Que.) 8:45.43, Terry Knowles (Brownville) 8:56.22, Andy Nissley (Shermon) 8:56.40, Robert Davis (Boxford, Mass.) 9:25.30, Sam Johnson (Mapleton) 10:16.06, Al Tarr (Gibsonia, Pa.) 11:46.35

30 mile race

Steve Johnson (Nawrlock, Ont.) 3:07.48, Carl Deblois (Frampton, Que.) 3:07.52, Becky Johnson (Luther, Mich.) 3:14.11, Shawn Akins (Cornwall, Ont.) 3:14.39, Francois Hamel (Lanoraie, Que.) 3:20.14, Meara Tenley (Topsham) 3:30.37, Pauline Sunman (Casselman, Ont.) 3:32.20, Alex Murphy (Vasselboro) 3:34.36, Derrick Spafford (Yarker, Ont.) 3:38.55, Michael Ellis (Rumney, N.H.) 3:43.57, Richard Jacques (St. Malachie, Que.) 3:47.53, Guy Landry (St. Francois, N.B.) 3:54.59, Stan Morgan (St. Micheldes, Que.) 3:55.14, Christine Richardson (Canaan, N.H.) 3:56.47, Bob O?Hearn (Sandown, N.H.) 4:00.22, Greg Vitello (Upton, Mass.) 4:10.35, Stephane Choinard (Repentigny) Que.) 4:10.49, Yves Carrier (St. Francois, N.B.) 4:18.10, Rhonda Welcome (Guilford) 4:44.00, Michael Wolf (St. Francis) 4:51.02, Tracy Thibodeau (Caribou) 5:01.40, Mary Wolf (St. Francis) 4:51.02, Jane Sutherland (Caribou) 5:01.40, Vicki Daitch (Canterbury, N.H.) 6:08.47, Steve Marsh (Mendon, N.H.) 8:26.24, Lynn Cyr (Fort Kent) 6:27.50, Alan Compare (Enfield, N.H.) 6:33.16