An excerpt from the book, Long Hard Trails and Sled Dog Tales, by Helen Hegener, published by Northern Light Media. This chapter is about the 2008 centennial running of the All Alaska Sweepstakes race:
We were surprised to learn that only 16 teams had entered to vie for the purse, but among them were champion mushers whose race records left no doubt that they were there to win, including Lance and Jeff. It was interesting that both had agreed there was no rivalry between them in Steve MacDonald’s KTUU interview, when he’d queried them about what many people were wondering: “Is Mackey and King becoming a rivalry like we saw between Rick Swenson and Susan Butcher?”
Lance replied first: “I hope not. Nothing personal. He’s a competitor; I want to beat him just as badly as he wants to beat me. I don’t think it’s going to become a bad relation sort of deal.”
Jeff concurred: “I’ve raced Lance’s dad and his brother. It’s easy for me to remember that this is the third Mackey I’ve raced. It brings back a lot of memories. Lance was 10 years old when I was racing his dad back up in the Cold Foot, that’s a little bit of a shock for me.”
Long Hard Trails and Sled Dog Tales
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