Ten mushers and eight skijorer's took to the trails this past Sunday to compete in the overhauled Yukon Brewing Twister Race Series.

Twenty-three entrants raced the 10-mile trail at Yukon Quest veteran William Kleedehn's "Limp-a-long Kennel.”

Leading the way in the sledding races was Dave Johnson with a time of 32:50 while Jonthan Lucas led the field in skijoring with a time of 36:58.

"It was a really good weekend,” said Johnson.

"It was a really good trail and some great weather.”

Johnson said he was happy overall with his racing and is looking forward to continuing the early season momentum.

Daryl Sheepway came second in the skijoring class and was also pleased with his results.

"I had a really good run,” he said. "I ended up having a really bad tangle which cost me a lot of time but other then that it was great.”

Fabian Schmitz, who coordinated the race, also ran a last-minute team and was able to place seventh in the sled category.

"I didn't expect too much with the dogs I had left to form my team but I was really happy,” he said.

"I had a good run and it was great meeting other teams and other members on the trail.”

The Dog Powered Sports Association of the Yukon (DPSAY) has instituted several key changes to this year's race series' and so far they have been well received.

One of those changes is the aspiration to hold each monthly race at a different

location.

"That will be good for everyone,” said Johnson. "It will be great training and it will be fun for the dogs and racers to get new scenery each month.”

"Everyone will get to experience new trails and travel around the Whitehorse area,” added Sheepway.

Schmitz will be sharing the duty of coordinating events with Sheepway throughout the race season and is optimistic that it won't be too difficult to locate new trail locations each month.

"I think there are plenty of locations that will work great for a race,” he said. "But we just have let the members know we need some help to find these locations.”

"I think we'll be fine we just need to get the message out that we need help hosting races.”

Another important change this year is the addition of a recreation class, where racers can take to the trails with any breed of dog.

Lucas also lead the pack in this event, turning in a time of 7:38.

In the past the event was ran as the pet dog class but didn't accomodate all dog breeds.

"It excluded sled dogs and there are a lot of people that have sled dogs as pets in the Yukon. So you ended up with a bunch of people that were unable to run their dogs,” said Schmit, who has already noticed the benefit of the change.

"We had four people come this weekend that all ran dogs that wouldn't have been allowed to run last year so I think that shows that it's a pretty good change.”

Racers can also form teams with a larger number of dogs this year.

"For some racers it wasn't really worth it to come out with four or five dogs,” Schmitz said.

"It's a long way to travel for only a couple of dogs and doesn't make sense. People are more willing to travel when they can race with larger teams.”

Sheepway also said that most of the musher's have been receptive to the change and are excited for the opportunity to use a larger dog team.

The skijoring and sledding class are separated in this year's races, allowing the separate classes to compete within their own fields and not against one another.

"It levels the playing field so they can compete against one another,” said Sheepway.

"The skijors and dog sleds still run together in the same race but they are timed separately,” explained Johnson.

Schmitz and Sheepway are currently working on plans for January's race and are encouraged by the positive reception they have received from the community.

"Everyone seems ecstatic about the changes,” said Sheepway.

He also noted that the races wouldn't be possible without a dedicated crop of

volunteers.

"It's a good community we've begun to form here over the last couple of years,” he said.