Nic Petit dashes to Copper Basin 300 win, his 5th in 6 years

GLENNALLEN, Alaska (KTUU) - At 7:41 a.m. Monday, a post was made to the Facebook page of veteran musher Nicolas Petit that stated simply: “Turned on the afterburners.”

And that he did, as the veteran musher reached downtown Glennallen shortly after noon on Monday to claim his fifth Copper Basin 300 title in six years.

Petit took off from the final checkpoint at Red Eagle Lodge just 12 minutes ahead of 2022 Copper Basin champion Brent Sass which was enough time to fend off the reigning Iditarod champion to the finish, who arrived in second place at about 12:30 p.m.

A streak of Copper Basin 300 wins that began in 2018 was interrupted last year when Petit couldn’t make the starting line because his dog truck wouldn’t start — a race in which Sass came in as the 2022 champion after Petit’s four-peat.

Jessie Holmes arrived in third place at 2:15 p.m. with Matt Hall placing fourth 15 minutes after.

The race touts itself as “The toughest 300 miles in Alaska” and with deep, soft snow combined with heavy moose traffic on the trail causing hoof holes, the tough trail got the best of some experienced mushers including Riley Dyche, Jeff Deeter and Richie Beattie.

As remaining teams will continue to trickle into Glennallen Monday, the next mid-distance sled dog races to keep an eye on are the Willow 300 on Jan. 25 and the Kuskokwim 300 taking off from Bethel on Jan. 27.

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