Nicolas Petit, after narrowly missing a championship in 2017, lead the 2018 Tustumena 200 Sled Dog Race from wire-to-wire racing to the championship of the 31st Tustumena 200 by a margin of twelve minutes.
Petit, the first out of the chute on Saturday at the start/finish area at Freddie’s Roadhouse in the Caribou Hills, lead through every checkpoint and was the first on the trail after the final mandatory rest at the McNeil Canyon School checkpoint. Petit left McNeil Canyon with a six minute advantage over race runner-up Travis Beal of Seward and seven minutes ahead of third place finisher Dave Turner of Fairbanks.
Travis Beal pulled to within two minutes of Petit around the 150 mile marker; Petit’s team pulled-away for a margin of victory of 12 seconds. Petit’s total running time was 15 hours and 52 minutes, covering the final leg in a blazing 3 hours and 41 minutes.
Petit finished second in 2017 to Cym Smith and Petit earns his first Tustumena 200 victory. Travis Beal finishes second overall in his fourth attempt at the T-200; Beal is a past winner of the Junior race and the T-100 event. Dave Turner finishes third for the second-straight T-200 race.
T-200 Top Five Standings
Place Name Total Running Time
#1 Nicolas Petit 15:52
#2 Travis Beal 16:04
#3 Dave Turner 16:21
#4 Crispin Studer 17:03
#5 Lance Mackey 17:40