Norwegian Wins Iditarod Race

Norway's Robert Sorlie, waving a Norwegian flag as he cruised into Nome, won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Wednesday — his second victory in only three tries.

Sorlie, a 47-year-old firefighter, crossed under the burled arch that serves as a finish line in Nome at 8:39 a.m., winning the 1,100-mile race across Alaska in nine days, 18 hours, 39 minutes and 31 seconds.

"It feels good," Sorlie said. "I am ready for breakfast."

Sorlie finished the race with eight dogs. It was half the number he started the race with, but the same number that took him to victory two years ago.

Sorlie is a three-time champion of Norway's premier long-distance sled dog race, the 600-mile Finnmarkslopet. The Iditarod is a more recent challenge.

This year's run was only the third time Sorlie had made the 1,100-mile trip from Anchorage to Nome, a town of 3,500 at the edge of the frozen Bering Sea. In his first showing in 2002, he finished ninth, setting a rookie record.

As in his 2003 victory, Sorlie grabbed the lead early. The owner of a small kennel, he fended off a strong field that included seasoned veterans and five other Iditarod champions.

"I think this win is better than the 2003," he said. "This year, the dogs are better."

Ed Iten, 51, of Kotzebue, racing in his seventh Iditarod, finished second about 35 minutes after Sorlie. He finished 5th in 2004.

The 2005 race was marked by unseasonably warm weather on much of the route, with wet, slushy snow and temperatures that can be uncomfortable for the dogs, which generally run best when it's 20 degrees below zero to 20 degrees above. A lack of a solid snow base had also forced race officials to move the March 6 start from Wasilla to Willow.

Sorlie, from Hurdal, Norway, is the second Iditarod winner born outside the United States and the second non-Alaskan to win. Doug Swingley of Lincoln, Mont., won four times and Martin Buser, a Swiss native who has lived in Alaska more than two decades, became a U.S. citizen after winning his fourth Iditarod in 2002.

For winning the 33rd Iditarod, Sorlie will receive $72,066.67 and a pickup truck. Seventy-nine mushers started this year's race, which has a total $750,000 purse.

Defending champion Mitch Seavey was in third place, followed by Ramy Brooks of Healy, who was twice runner-up in 2002 and 2003.

Rookie Bjornar Andersen of Norway, who is Sorlie's nephew, was running in fifth place.

Thirteen mushers have scratched, leaving 66 teams in the race early Wednesday. Legally blind rookie Rachael Scdoris of Bend, Ore., was at the back of the pack, accompanied by Paul Ellering of Grey Eagle, Minn. Ellering is a former professional wrestler and former Iditarod competitor who is serving as Scdoris' "visual interpreter."