2010 OPEN NORTH AMERICAN, DAY 2 REPORT, VIDEO AND PHOTOS

Another great day of racing here in Fairbanks the weather was a bit cooler than yesterday, but still warm for dog racing – temps hovered just above the freezing mark. LEAD CHANGE img::egilfinish.jpgEgil Ellis rounds the turn for home, in the field before the finish line on Day 2. Image by Greg SellentinDefending champion and 9-time winner here, Egil Ellis had a blistering run to move himself into first place after two days of racing. “I changed out Casper and replaced him with Email. He’s a younger dog, but doesn’t like to pass. I caught Arleigh out there, and couldn’t get him to pass. Arleigh picked up the speed pretty good coming home. I had to let him go because I had one wheel dog who started to hold back a little bit and I didn’t want to load him. I hope to go with 10 dogs tomorrow.” Egil said after the race.img::Picture3.pngWhen I asked Arleigh how it went he said, “We had a good run, I had a couple of dogs that were slow starting, but we had a good finish. Egil was pretty close to me there for a while, but I was able to pull away at the end. I kept it close enough to make a race of it tomorrow.” I asked if the speed at the end of the run was natural (he pulled away from Egil by about 40 seconds, after almost being passed) he said, “No, I asked the team for the speed, I didn’t want to get passed.” About tomorrow: “I have the opportunity to know where Egil is all the time, and there is only 50 seconds between us. Kenny is right there too, and Jason has a good team. I think there are 4 teams that can win, and it will be a great race tomorrow.”Kenny Chezik: “It felt hot out there. The dog team rolled right along pretty good. They maintained 20mph for quite a long time, then they drifted back down to the upper 18’s and held at a steady pace. A few dogs looked like the heat was getting to them a bit. I didn’t really ask them for anything and hopefully there is something there for tomorrow.”Jason Dunlap had the fourth fastest time today. “Run went well, the dogs were really running strong. I probably took a wrong dog in the team today, he was on the neckline for a while, and I had to load him. It was driver error, there was probably something wrong with him from the start, but I didn’t see it. I went with Raisin and Ruger, two sisters in lead. As it looks right now, I’ll probably use them tomorrow also. I’m really looking forward to racing tomorrow.”More videos to come soon.youtube::http://www.youtube.com/v/LWsD7TQY4eg&hl=en&fs=1youtube::http://www.youtube.com/v/94SUoOKXrU4&hl=en&fs=1youtube::http://www.youtube.com/v/1gvGcSIWtGI&hl=en_US&fs=1youtube::http://www.youtube.com/v/tz4qdwfIkEs&hl=en&fs=1youtube::http://www.youtube.com/v/TalM97Ghfbw&hl=en&fs=1youtube::http://www.youtube.com/v/sUanWpgvK6o&hl=en&fs=1youtube::http://www.youtube.com/v/kZlwGOo8ltE&hl=en&fs=1youtube::http://www.youtube.com/v/6iizbnGsp4s&hl=en&fs=1youtube::http://www.youtube.com/v/Bc3okyBh-xc&hl=en&fs=1youtube::http://www.youtube.com/v/Dp7_35QhVSs&hl=en&fs=1youtube::http://www.youtube.com/v/H2-Rq1r9GkU&hl=en&fs=1youtube::http://www.youtube.com/v/cz9-HhbcqNQ&hl=en&fs=1youtube::http://www.youtube.com/v/WJYCiQzCByg&hl=en&fs=1youtube::http://www.youtube.com/v/qTNVau0LI9Y&hl=en&fs=1youtube::http://www.youtube.com/v/9FfOKQeoAcw&hl=en&fs=1youtube::http://www.youtube.com/v/9V8jzCTcr8U&hl=en&fs=1youtube::http://www.youtube.com/v/FlK2_TKVzB0&hl=en&fs=1img::calcutta.pngCalcutta handicap after day 2Photos from Fairbanks photographer Dave Partee: http://www.sleddogstudio.com/photo/onac/2010/Magali Philip’s photo album:http://www.flickr.com/photos/7849338@N03/sets/72157623530146651/