Dream run makes Buddy Streeper a 7-time Fur Rendezvous champion

On a brilliant Sunday afternoon in Anchorage that delivered sunshine and mild temperatures, Buddy Streeper was in seventh heaven.

And considering the hellish week he had leading up to the final heat of the Open World Championship Sled Dog Race, that’s saying a lot.

Flying the Canadian flag on his sled, Streeper seized his seventh Fur Rendezvous championship with a perfect 25-mile, high-speed tour of Anchorage.

“I couldn’t do anything wrong. It was awesome,” said the British Columbia musher, who owned a 45-second lead after Saturday’s heat and wound up winning by 4 minutes, 23 seconds.

Streeper’s blazing speed was on display at the Fourth Avenue finish. His team of 13 dogs carried so much power that in order to stop it Streeper pulled back on his sled handlebar so hard that the runners in front of his sled came off the ground. It was as if he popped a wheelie, musher-style.

Streeper, the defending champion, won Sunday’s heat with the fastest time in three days of racing — 1 hour, 21 minutes, 34 seconds. He was 3:38 faster than anyone else Sunday.

His three-day total time was 4:11:00, putting him comfortably ahead of second-place John Erhart (4:15:23).

Streeper’s dogs were so fast that 12 miles into the race they passed Erhart, who started two minutes ahead of Streeper in the interval start.

It was a special moment, Streeper said.

“It’s pride in the team, it’s pride in how the team is running,” he said. “You’re passing the second-best team, so you know how elite your team is and how special it is.”

A race that began in 1946, Fur Rondy is steeped in history, and Streeper is adding to it. With his seventh victory, he is one win away from matching Roland “Doc” Lombard’s eight wins and three away from George Attla’s revered record of 10.

Claiming third place was Salcha’s Amy Dunlap (4:18:40), a Rondy rookie but a veteran dog driver. She won Friday’s heat and had Sunday’s fourth-fastest time.

Fourth place went to Guy Gerard of Quebec (4:20:07) and fifth place went to Michael Tetzner of Germany, who was in seventh place entering the final heat but jumped two spots with Sunday’s third-fastest time.

Streeper’s dream run came at the end of several trying days, including a span of about 20 hours Friday and Saturday when one of his dogs went missing.

Two-year-old Vinny wandered away from the parking lot of a Spenard hotel Friday evening and went on a solo tour of Anchorage before returning to the hotel the next afternoon.

“I had a challenging week, right?” said Streeper, who drove a huge rig to Anchorage from Fort Nelson, B.C. Along for the ride were 46 dogs, his wife Lina — who placed sixth overall Sunday — their two children and Lina’s mother.

“I blew out a couple tires 200 miles north of home and we had to stop and wait (overnight) for extra tires,” he said. “The first day (of Rondy) I barely made my start time, and yesterday I had a dog go missing.”

Vinny is a spare dog. On Friday evening, before it got dark, the Streepers released their dogs in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Express so they could pee, poop and play. Streeper calls it a “free drop,” and it’s a routine occurrence.

“When we got done we said, ‘OK, let’s go,’ and Vinny wasn’t there, which is so unusual because he’s like a magnet to the truck,” Streeper said. “We tracked him to the road and were really discouraged by that.”

Once Vinny hit pavement, his tracks vanished. The Streepers turned to social media to help with their search, and by Saturday morning a number of sightings had been reported.

When Streeper got to Fourth Avenue on Saturday morning, some fellow mushers said they’d seen Vinny downtown, which astonished Streeper. He began his race that day thinking he might see the dog on the trail.

After a solid run lifted him from fourth place to first place, Streeper and his crew headed back to the hotel, still worried about Vinny. Then his phone rang.

“The hotel called and said, ‘Your dog’s at the hotel right where you park your truck.’ I said ‘Don’t try to catch him, we’re 10 minutes away,’ ” Streeper said.

The Streepers travel with nearly four dozen dogs because they’re in Alaska for two big races — from Anchorage, they’ll head north for the Open North American in Fairbanks, where Buddy and Lina finished 1-2 last year.

Thirty-two of their dogs raced at Fur Rondy — on Friday, Buddy drove a team of 18 and Lina drove 14. Some of the spares could race in Fairbanks but even if they don’t, they’ll gain experience by going on training runs on unfamiliar trails.

For Vinny, a young spare dog, Streeper said “the plan was to get him some experience here, and he did. He’s seen all of Anchorage.”

Open World Championship Sled Dog Race

Final standings (3-day total times)

1) Buddy Streeper 4:11:00;

2) John Erhart 4:15:23;

3) Amy Dunlap 4:18:40;

4) Guy Gerard 4:20:21;

5) Michael Tetzner 4:20:45;

6) Lina Streeper 4:20:58;

7) Ricky Taylor 4:22:07;

8) Ken Chezik 4:23:52;

9) Jeff Conn 4:26:34;

10) Marvin Kokrine 4:27:01;

11) James Wheeler 4:30:42;

12) Courtney Agnes 4:31:31;

13) Carl Knudsen 4:33:47;

14) Brett Beck 4:39:13;

15) Armin Johnson 4:41:51;

16) Bill Kornmuller 4:44:34;

17) Don Cousins 4:55:09;

18) Wendy Callis 4:59:57;

19) Nikki Seo 5:00:37;

20) Todd Whitcomb 5:06:02;

21) Colby Evensen 5:06:19;

22) Matt Paveglio 5:44:34;

Scratched — Rejean Therrien.

This story has been updated to include the final standings.