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Photo by John Wagner

Photo by John Wagner

Photo by John Wagner

Egil Ellis stepped into a whole new world Sunday afternoon on a sunny Second Avenue in downtown Fairbanks.

By winning the GCI Open North American Championship sled dog race for the eighth time in 11 years, the Willow musher tied the legendary George Attla for the most victories in the 63-year history of the longest consecutively run sled dog race in the world.

“It’s an unbelievable honor and a just a great feeling to be up there with George Attla,” Ellis said as he was surrounded by well-wishers following another flawless run around the ONAC trail.

“He is the true hero in this sport and it’s an honor to be up there with him,” Ellis said. “I read about him in books and magazines when I was a kid and he’s certainly been an inspiration to me to come over here and try to race in the Open and the Rondy.

“I think I’ve put myself in some pretty good company,” he added, beaming a broad smile.

Ellis equaled Attla’s mark by putting together three flawless runs, including Sunday’s 30-mile jaunt around the course.

“This is just such a great team,” he said. “They were really strong today, so I held them back a bit at the start and was pretty conservative for the first half. That allowed me to push them a little bit coming home.”

Ellis actually had the second-fastest time of the day on Sunday, but he was only four seconds slower than runner-up Buddy Streeper of Fort Nelson, British Columbia. Ellis won the three-day race, which features a $28,000 purse, by almost 3 minutes.

Streeper finished the day with a run of 93 minutes, 4.3 seconds, while Ellis crossed the finish line with his arms raised in the air in 93:09.7.

Ellis took a 10-second lead after Friday’s 20-mile heat. He broke the race open during Saturday’s 20-mile run by posting a faster time than he had on Friday and then held his own on Sunday to produce a winning time of 219 minutes, 16.8 seconds.

Streeper had an overall time of 222:10.2.

“That’s not bad for me being David going up against Goliath over there with his huge kennel,” Ellis said, pointing to Streeper’s truck parked across the street. “It shows that a small kennel can still compete and makes this win that much better.”

While Ellis took a 3-minute lead into Sunday’s final heat, he said he didn’t start thinking about the win until he was back on Second Avenue, heading for the finish line.

“I knew if I kept it steady, we were going to win, but I didn’t relax until I got up the ramp off the Chena River,” he said.

Ellis said his eighth win in the Open North American was a matter of timing.

“You’ve got to have the right team come together and peak for this weekend,” he said. “All of the pieces fell into the right places this year.”

Streeper’s decision to change leaders on the second day cost him a chance at winning a second straight championship trophy, but the Canadian musher was happy with the way his team finished up on Sunday.

“It was a much better run today,” Streeper said. “I could see that everything was coming together in the middle of the course and it warmed up nicely for a strong finish.”

He acknowledged that the second day was his downfall.

“I think we have two equally matched teams,” he said. “My move to switch leaders this weekend didn’t quite work out the way I was hoping it would.”

Streeper said he and his father, Terry Streeper, will split up the team for the rest of the season and compete in village races for the remainder of the season.

“We’ll take next week off and then my dad will take one team and race in Kotzebue and Noorvik and I’ll take the other team and race in Tanana and Huslia,” he said.

As for Ellis, he’s already looking forward to next year, when he hopes to surpass his boyhood idol at the top of the all-time Open North American win list.

“I’ve got to do it one more time to get ahead of George,” he said.