Whitehorse Daily Star

Johnson remains unbeaten on the Twister trail

Dave Johnson continued his unbeaten streak this past weekend in the Yukon Brewing Twister Race series.

By Sam Riches on February 21, 2012

Dave Johnson continued his unbeaten streak this past weekend in the Yukon Brewing Twister Race series.

Johnson recorded his fourth win of the season in the sled category. He's now won every race.

Johnson traversed the 15-kilometre trail in just under 33 minutes and was followed closely by Megan Grabowski, who posted a time of 33:14.

Darryl Sheepway took home top honours in the skijoring category, completing the race in 36:35.

Seth Carey won the kid's category, completing a 6.5 km trail in just over 16 minutes.

It was the fourth race of the Twister season and placed the teams in the Ibex Valley, running on the old Yukon Dog Mushers Association (YDMA) dog track.

Steve Gibbons prepared and marked the trail.

"Steve did a great job,” said Sheepway. "It was an excellent trail to race on, it was really hard packed and fast.”

The trail conditions kept the races close for the five skijoring teams and 10 sled

teams that competed.

On the skijoring side, the entire field finished the race within three-and-a-half minutes of each other.

Sheepway, who topped second place finisher Jon Lucas by less than a minute, said the fast trail conditions were noticeable when attempting to make a pass.

"The trail was pretty narrow so it made for some interesting passing but any time that you lost with a bad pass you were able to make it up again with the speed,” he said.

The Twister, which is taking place in a different location for every race, continues to draw new faces.

"The season is going awesome,” said Fabian Schmitz, who placed fifth in the sled category and co-organizes the races, along with Sheepway.

"We had some new faces out again and that's always nice to see.”

One of those new faces was Gerry Willowmitzer, who has completed both the

Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race and the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Willowmitzer, who was training a team of young dogs placed last in the sled category.

"It's always nice when the big names show up to our little races,” said Schmitz.

There was also a possibility that former Yukon Quest champion, Hans Gaat, would be competing in the race.

"We were hoping Hans would show up,” said Schmitz.

"He hosted our last race and he made some comments that he may compete with us.”

Many of the competitors, including Gatt, are now gearing up for the River Runner 100, which will be held on Feb. 25th and 26th.

The 210 km sled or skijor race from Whitehorse to Mendenhall is expecting a large turnout this season due to the introduction of a new 105 km skijoring category.

"We're excited for it and I think it will be a lot of fun,” said Schmitz.

"Everyone is ready to compete.”

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