Streeper secures eighth Open North American Championship title

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) - With near perfect trail conditions and a daring pack of dogs, the defending champion of the 76th annual Open North American Championship has succeeded in his quest to remain the fastest team in North America.

In 2021 the 75th annual Open North American Championship or ONAC saw the seventh victory for Canadian racer Blayne “Buddy” Streeper. In 2022, Streeper secured his eighth ONAC title with a time of 219 minutes, 32.2 seconds. Adding onto his latest triumph at the Jeff Studdart Race Grounds, Streeper broke his track record for the 27 mile trail sprint by over a minute. The new record now stands at 90 minutes 53.5 seconds.

While Streeper held his position through all three days, The first two days saw Don Cousins fall from fifth to seventh place, meanwhile Tony Blanford from Anchorage, bumped up to fifth from sixth. For the rookies, Clyde Mayo Jr. went from 11th overall to 18th by day two. Laura Bontrager managed to find forward momentum instead though and moved up four spots to 12th place.

At the end of day three the totals would keep Erick LaForce in second providing a higher finish than he had in 2021. Coming in third overall, Jake Robinson would get to share the same victory of bumping up one spot in 2022. Last year, Anny Malo had the honor of holding second place however this year Malo found herself with fifth place while fourth place finisher Michael Tetzner claimed that he would have won third place. Tetzner who originates from Burg, Germany, made this claim during the awards ceremony. He cited that he faced a dilemma after having a non-injuring incident involving a pistol. The pistol was a borrowed firearm which he had asked for citing safety concerns regarding aggravated moose. For the forward moving rookie from Michigan, Laura Bontrager bumped up to 10th place while her fellow rookies, rounded out the final three spots of the 19 competing teams.

Local resident Carl Erhart would take the red lantern despite being the original builder of the trail months earlier, along with being a frequent groomer and user of the trail. Erhart was a rookie despite having been around mushing his whole life and said that his goal this season was to bring the Erhart family name back to the mushing scene and to develop the skills needed to be a competitive racer in the following years.

Win Order	Name	Hometown	No. of Dogs	Total Time
1	Blayne “Buddy” Streeper	Fort Nelson, British Columbia	14	219:32.3
2	Erick LaForce	Lanoraie, Quebec	10	222:27.9
3	Jake Robinson	Bemidji, Minnesota	11	230:03.0
4	Michael Tetzner	Burg, Germany	12	230:57.5
5	Anny Malo	Saint Zenon, Quebec	10	233:43.6
6	Tony Blanford	Anchorage, Alaska	16	233:59.1
7	Don Cousins	Crooked Creek, Alberta	12	235:49.2
8	Beth Callis	Two Rivers, Alaska	10	238:28.4
9	Alix Crittenden	Bondurant, Wyoming	8	240:32.0
10	Laura Bontrager (Rookie)	Newberry, Michigan	11	243:52.9
11	Guy Gerard	Saint-Thomas, Joliette, Quebec,	10	244:20.7
12	Marvin, Kokrine	North Pole, Alaska	10	245:20.4
13	Andy Huetten	Nenana, Alaska	8	245:38.4
14	Frank Habermann	Clam Gulch, Alaska	14	247:59.2
15	Dave Turner	Fairbanks, Alaska	11	248:45.5
16	Eddy Dayton	Big Lake, Alaska	14	252:51.2
17	Mitchell Jacobson (Rookie)	Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories	9	264:09.2
18	Clyde Mayo Jr (Rookie)	Fairbanks, Alaska	11	272:33.7
19	Carl Erhart (Rookie)	Tanana/Fairbanks, Alaska	8	272:56.7