The Latest: Iditarod is a battle between son, father

The Latest: Iditarod is a battle between son, father

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 7:05 p.m. ET

NOME, Alaska (AP) The Latest on the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race (all times local):

8:40 p.m.

The Iditarod is a battle this year between son and father.

Three-time champion Dallas Seavey is leading the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and is just hours away from the finish line in Nome. His closest competitor is his father, two-time champion Mitch Seavey.

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Dallas Seavey, who has won three out of the last four races across Alaska, was the first musher to leave the checkpoint at White Mountain. Second out White Mountain was Mitch Seavey, who has 77 miles to close the 39-minute lead his son has on him.

Mitch Seavey has won the Iditarod twice, in 2004 and 2013.

Brent Sass is also out of White Mountain. Mushers still serving their eight-hour mandatory rest periods at the checkpoint are Aliy Zirkle, Wade Marrs, Pete Kaiser and Norwegian musher Joar Leifseth Ulsom.

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1:55 p.m.

No extra security is planned at the finish line of the world's most famous sled dog race, just days after a man on snowmobile purposely drove at a high speed into two mushers' teams, killing one dog and injuring several others.

Nome officials on Monday said they plan normal security measures as this Bering Sea coastal community celebrates the end of the nearly 1,000 mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race across Alaska. It's an event Mayor Richard Beneville has called ''Mardi Gras with dogs.''

He says he was alarmed, upset and saddened by the incident, but he believes it's an aberration.

Nome Police Chief John Papasodora says it will be all hands on deck for his force when mushers come in. But that's normal every year, in part to provide safety but also to honor the mushers.

The winner is expected into Nome sometime early Tuesday morning. Three-time winner Dallas Seavey was the first musher into the checkpoint in White Mountain, 39 minutes ahead of two-time winner Mitch Seavey, who is also his father.

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8:05 a.m.

Reigning Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race champion Dallas Seavey leads the 2016 race as mushers move up the Bering Sea coast.

Seavey reached the village of Elim at 4:09 a.m. Monday, stayed two minutes, and headed north with nine dogs in harness.

He has a 26-minute lead over Brent Sass, who reached Elim just before 4:30 a.m., stayed eight minutes and left with 13 dogs at 4:37 a.m.

Seavey's father, former champion Mitch Seavey, was three minutes behind Sass. He left Elim at 4:40 a.m.

Aliy Zirkle (AL-ee ZUR-cul), one of two mushers whose teams were hit by a snowmobile Saturday morning, is in fourth.

Teams must take a mandatory eight-hour rest stop at the village of White Mountain but could reach the finish line at Nome by Tuesday morning.

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This story has been corrected to reflect the day of week in the second paragraph should be Monday, not Tuesday.

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