DAWSON CITY – Gerry Willomitzer added to his list of Percy DeWolfe Memorial Mail Race wins with a finishing time of 24 hours and 14 minutes on Friday evening.

The Whitehorse resident pulled into Dawson at 6:28 p.m., just three minutes ahead of the second place finisher, Maria Hernetkoski.

That she was his handler in the big races this past winter, and was running another of his teams, means that the Blackjack Racing Kennels really owned the race this year.

Willomitzer was the 2008 Percy champion, and ran in second place in 2011. He has run the Iditarod six times and the Yukon Quest five times.

The third down to fifth-place finishers were Will van Randen (25 hours, 22 minutes), Brian Wilmshurst (25:23) and Dyan Bergen (30:34).

As there were only five teams that finished the round trip between Dawson and Eagle, Alaska this year, everyone was in the money.

In fact, there was some left over, and the organizers decided to spread it among the seven finishers in the Junior Percy.

In descending order, they were Gaetan Pierrard (12:31), Melissa Schenke (12:46), Anezka Kolafova (13:31), Deb Knight (13:44), Erin Stevens (13:45), Shelley Brown (14:15) and Christina Reeves (14:34).

The sole skijor racer was Jonathan Lucas, who had the very respectable time of 13:21, faster than some of the dog teams.

The pot was also sweetened for the two winners of the Vets' Choice awards.

Joe and Wendy Fellers donated two gold nuggets to the Percy committee to use as they saw fit. So the committee decided they would go to the winners of the Vet's Choice awards.

Wilmshurst, from the main race, received a nugget worth about $1,500, and Melissa Schenke, from the junior event, received one worth about $700.

The Rookie of the Year, in a year when nearly all the racers in the main event were rookies, was Hernetkoski, who also managed to win the Anorak in one of the door prize draws.

She said she was returning to her home in Norway with some unique memories and a unique piece of clothing.

Willomitzer received the Sportsmanship award, which is voted on by all the mushers.

The race suffered in registration this year, with only six teams in the main race, half of last year's number.

There would have been two more, but a couple of mushers travelling together from Alaska were prevented from attending when one of them had issues at the U.S./Canadian border.

Altogether there were 15 teams registered for the three events, with 14 actually running and 13 finishing.

"There wouldn't have been much of a race this year if it wasn't for the rookies,” said race marshall John Borg.

That is true. Willomitzer was the oldest veteran of the race and Wilmshurst was running for the third time. The list of regulars who have raced here for years was almost completely depleted.

Organizers feel that many veterans, who usually attend this race after the two big races and always speak of it as a nice way to end the season, were prevented by the Iditarod being held later that usual this year.

Willomitzer advised the organizers and the other mushers not to be discouraged by this year's low numbers.

"It was a small field … but that doesn't mean that's easy for anybody who is in the race,” he said.

"I remember in 2006 we had six teams in the race and then a few years later it was 15 or almost 20. It cycles up and down so, for all the organizers and volunteers, don't be discouraged by the small number this year. I'm sure there will be more people next year.”

The Percy committee was only a trio this year, but some 50 volunteers stepped in when needed to actually carry out the plan, including trail-making, preparing the starting chutes, making sure King Street still had snow on it for the start, setting up the Oddfellows ballroom for the banquet, selling tickets and staffing the merchandise table.

Beginning as a memorial run in honour of the Iron Man Mail Carrier in 1977, the event morphed into an actual race in the 1980s and has continued with some ups and downs ever since.