Iditarod Goes To Swingley Montana Rancher’s Fast Team Of Dogs Races Wire-To-Wire To Defeat ‘94 Winner In Record Time

The trail-savvy veterans of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race chuckled at Doug Swingley’s strategy.

He ran in front early in the race, figuring his team would eventually fade from the fast pace.

Proving them wrong, the rancher from Simms, Mont., drove the nine dogs left through the cheering fans lining Nome’s historic Front Street and under the burled arch at 12:43 p.m. Alaska time to claim victory in the 23rd Iditarod.

His official time for the 1,100-mile race was 9 days, 2 hours, 43 minutes, by far eclipsing the previous race record of 10:13:03 set last year by Martin Buser of Big Lake. But the times aren’t comparable because the first 24 hours of this year’s race didn’t count against elapsed time, as they did last year.

Swingley, running in his fourth Iditarod, will take home the race’s top prize of $52,500 and a new pickup truck as the first non-Alaskan to win the race.

“That’s a personal victory for myself because I’ve got a lot of competitors in the Lower 48,” he said after crossing the finish line. “Now I don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

His dogs became disoriented by the reaction of the crowd as they ran down Front Street. Eventually, Swingley went to the front of the team and led them before they started running on their own again.

Swingley was immediately greeted with a kiss from his wife Nelda, who was in sunny Nome for the finish with their children. It was the first daylight finish for the Iditarod since Joe Runyan’s triumph in 1989.

“It’s a long trail out there, and it’s all you think about from the time you leave (Anchorage), that this is the place you’re trying to get to,” Swingley said.

Trail conditions and weather were near-perfect for the entire race, favoring Swingley’s choice of dogs.

“This just played into my hands in trying to train a really fast, fast dog team,” he said. “I just decided that (Buser) was beating us by having a team that would lope whenever the trail conditions warranted it. So we set out to do that.”

Buser, considered the musher to beat at the start of the race, was trailing in second place, six hours off Swingley’s pace. He left the White Mountain checkpoint at 9:20 a.m. after a required eight-hour layover.

Also out of White Mountain, 77 miles from Nome, was Bill Cotter at 11 a.m. and Dee Dee Jonrowe at 11:08 a.m.

Charlie Boulding and Rick Mackey were in White Mountain and eligible to set out again late Tuesday afternoon.

Pushing toward White Mountain were Tim Osmar, 1993 winner Jeff King, Vern Halter and five-time champion Rick Swenson.