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Twister series gets new winner

It took five races to see a second dog mushing winner in the Yukon Brewing Twister series. There was a different winner but with the same last name. No relation.
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It took five races to see a second dog mushing winner in the Yukon Brewing Twister series.

There was a different winner but with the same last name. No relation.

Armin Johnson won his first Twister race of the season in the Cool Dogs and Hot Springs Race Day organized by the Dog Powered Sport Association of the Yukon on Sunday at the Takhini Hot Springs.

Tagish’s Dave Johnson, who had won all four previous races, was absent from the event.

Armin has twice finished second behind Dave this season in Twister races. He missed the last race and finished fifth in the one before that in January.

Armin also finished third in the 10-mile dogsled category at the Carbon Hill Sled Dog Race in January, two spots behind Dave.

Taking second in the 13-mile sled division was Gunter Glaeser. It was Glaeser’s first Twister race of the season.

“We had new faces come in and that was really nice, to see new people,” said race organizer Fabian Schmitz. “That’s always exciting when you have people come in that are not part of the DPSAY community. They see that race and say, ‘That’s something I want to do.’

“(Glaeser) ran a team from Drag-N-Fly Kennel - they always have good teams, so that’s no surprise.”

Crispin Studer finished in third for the second Twister race in a row.

In the 13-mile skijor division, Stefan Wackerhagen won his third Twister race of the season.

Wackerhagen was also a winner - and record setter - at the Carbon Hill race. He has won the Carbon Hill’s 30-mile skijor division the last two years.

“He got a five-minute time penalty but he still got first,” said Schmitz. “He took the wrong trail back. A few teams did that. It was the same distance - the difference in the distance was only 200 metres or something like that.”

Claudia Wickert took second. It was the third Twister race in a row Wickert finished in the top-three. Wickert, who hasn’t missed a Twister race all season, is still looking for that first win.

Sunday’s race marked the first time the kids’ division was actually competitive with more than one musher entered. Two competed in Sunday’s four-mile kids’ event.

Seth Carey, competing in his third consecutive Twister, took first. In second was newcomer Eugenie Champeval.

“It was nice to see a new kid’s face out there,” said Schmitz.

Amil Dupuis-Rossi won the recreational class for the second time this season.

It was the first time a Twister race had been held at the Takhini Hot Springs. The event was just one team short of tying for the biggest turnout of the Twister race season.

“The guys at the Hot Springs were super keen on organizing it and they were super helpful,” said Schmitz. “They did an awesome job.

“Everybody got to soak in the hot water after, so we’re all clean now. It was an awesome race all around.”


RESULTS


13-mile sled

1st Armin Johnson - 54:19

2nd Gunter Glaeser - 57:05

3rd Crispin Studer - 57:47

4th Christel Bartczack - 1:00:24

5th Cindy Hawkins - 1:05:26

6th Stephan Atmanspacher - 1:08:25

7th Fabian Schmitz - 1:10:04

8th Moira Sauer - 1:16:10

9th Christina Reeves - 1:17:13

10th Kate Weekes - 1:18:33

11th Jean-Marc Champeval - 1:19:00

12th Janet Keller - 1:48:05


13-mile skijoring

1st Stefan Wackerhagen - 59:18

2nd Claudia Wickert - 1:01:45

3rd Adam Robinson - 1:04:35

4th Barb Anderson - 1:06:55

5th Amil Dupuis-Rossi - 1:09:43


Four-mile recreational

1st Amil Dupuis-Rossi - 23:43

2nd Valerie Bussieres - 29:54

3rd Alex Rochat - 30:15


Four-mile kids

1st Seth Carey - 22:25

2nd Eugenie Champeval - 31:04


Contact Tom Patrick

at tomp@yukon-news.com