Lance Mackey's car racing community gives tribute

It isn't just the mushing community giving tribute to the mushing legend. In the years since his whirlwind dominance of the Iditarod and Quest trails, Lance turned to car racing. He raced on many tracks in Alaska and in the North Western part of the Lower 48. In fact, it was after a roll over accident on a track that Lance was diagnosed with the cancer than would ultimately take his life. Odd how poetic his life had been, he was diagnosed with his first round of cancer back in the early 2000s after he had trouble swallowing/talking while running the Iditarod. 

After his car racing facebook page "Below Zero Racing" posted of his passing, word of course spread quickly and tributes came in. Below are a sampling of the ones shared throughout the week.

When Lance's health made it impossible for him to drive, fellow musher who's now got the car racing bug Nicolas Petit took over driving Lance's car. He will continue to drive in Lance's memory and honor.

More tributes to Lance Mackey

As everyone prepare to say a final farewell to Iditarod and Quest champion Lance Mackey on Saturday, tributes to the mushing legend continue to be posted. Many heartfelt stories and memories shared by those in the community from all over the world. This is, in a way, a part two from last weekend's round up. 

Lance touched so many lives, most likely more than he could have even imagined, and it's easy to "fall down the rabbit hole" following the tributes and reading in the comments others chiming in with similar stories where the champion musher took time out of his life to reach out and encourage those he didn't even know. Like many cancer warriors, Lance responded to many fellow warriors as they reached out to tell of their own battle. Even with all of Lance's hardships, he never thought his problems and his life were above another, and that has never been so evident as this past week as so many shared stories of Lance this week. Saturday should have even more of those moments.

And as a reminder, the family set up a GoFundMe for Lance's two youngest children, if you would like to donate you can click this link.

Don't worry, there's more, just below the cut.

Alpine Creek 200 & 300 is no more

The Alpine Creek Sled Dog 200 & 300 races went on social media earlier today to announce that their races were discontinued. Citing lack of musher interest and concerns for funding, the race informed the mushing world that it had lost another Iditarod & Quest Qualifier.

The race was created to fill a void after a number of mid-distance races in Alaska disbanded. Because so many teams were then without a way to finish their required qualifiers for their Iditarod and Quest runs, the organizers of the Alpine Creek Excursion decided to do a longer mid-distance race to help fill the void.

The Alpine Creek Lodge where the race took place, is a home away from home for many teams during the early winter training months as it is one of the first areas to get good snow pack for sled training. They will, of course, remain open for teams to use them as a jumping off point to trails. 

Mackey memorial service set for Saturday

According to the obituary posted today for Lance Mackey, the memorial service for the 4-time Iditarod and Yukon Quest champion will take place on September 17th at 2pm AKST in Palmer at the Janssen's MatSu Funeral Home.

For those unable to attend in person a Zoom meeting has been set up to broadcast a live feed of the memorial service. If you have issues and it asks for codes/passwords they are:

Meeting ID: 833 3200 7986
Passcode: 333879

Mackey passed way late at night on September 7, 2022 after a lengthy battle with cancer. The 52 year old musher left behind many family and friends including his two youngest children who lost their mother in 2020.

In lieu of flowers the family has set up an account for Atigun and Lozen's future.

Northrim Bank
Account: 3109153682
Routing: 125200934

You may also donate via the GoFundMe Lance's sister Kristin Elieff set up benefiting Atigun and Lozen. 

The family is also requesting stories and photos of Lance be sent to Aunt Kris to share with his young children. You can share them on her facebook post found here.

Mushing Community pays tribute to Lance Mackey

Lance Mackey comes off the sea ice.
Nome, AK. March 15, 2019.

In the past 48 hours or so, social media has been flooded with tributes to legendary musher Lance Mackey following his passing Wednesday night. The four time Iditarod and Yukon Quest Champion (consecutive wins for both with two years of winning both thousand mile races) passed away after a length battle with cancer. Lance was 52 at the time of his passing and leaves behind an adult daughter as well as his young son and daughter with partner Jenne whom they lost in a rollover ATV accident in 2020. 

Below is a sampling of tributes made public by his fellow mushers.

Mushing Legend Lance Mackey has passed away

Iditarod Champion Lance Mackey greets the crowd
at the Re-Start of Iditarod 47. Willow, AK. March 3, 2019.

Around 12:30am on September 8 a simple message appeared from Dick and Cathy Mackey's facebook page "Our son, Lance passed away this evening after a long battle with cancer. More from all the family later." News slowly spread as mushers and fans woke to the news. Lance Mackey passed away on September, he was 52 and leaves behind two young children who just two years ago lost their mother.

Lance Mackey was probably the most famous of one of mushing's "royal dynasties". Lance's father Dick was one of the original trail blazers who helped Joe Redington get the crazy idea of an Iditarod Trail sled dog race off the ground. Dick would go on to win the Iditarod in 1978 beating young buck Rick Swenson by one second. The teams ran down front street together and seemed to finish in a tie - thus making the race marshal to declare that the winning team was the nose of the first dog to cross the finish, and that was Mackey's lead dog. In 1983, it would be Lance's older brother Rick who would win the Iditarod, making history as the first second generation champion.

Lance's story has been well documented through the years. His autobiography is still available for purchase, and the 2013 documentary "The Great Alone" is available on DVD and on several streaming platforms. Mackey's life was hard, admittedly at times by his own doing, and he didn't always make the best choices. Lance was always an open book to those around him - including fans - and that made him one of the most personable mushers in the history of the sport. 

Just as Lance had returned to the sport of mushing, building a kennel seemingly on a whim after moving to Kasilof, Alaska (located on the Kenai Peninsula, and home to the start of the Tustumena 200). He started running the smaller races as he built up his home and his kennel in true Lance style (by the seat of his pants with scraps and throw aways). 

During his rookie run in the Iditarod in 2001, Lance felt a lump in his neck after realizing he was having trouble swallowing. He would soon be diagnosed with throat cancer, and at one point doctors did not expect him to pull through. But by the 2002 Iditarod, Lance was back on the runners with a tube into his stomach for food and sponsorship from his team of doctors. He would scratch in Ophir that year, but he was already solidifying his legend status - and he hadn't won anything yet.

Just three years later Lance would start his run of dominating the sport of long distance mushing. He would go on to win four consecutive Yukon Quests from 2005 to 2008, and four consecutive Iditarod titles from 2007 to 2010, a feat that will most likely never be replicated. Mackey proved that the same team of dogs could win back to back long distance races in the same year, and did so with old school mushing styles and methods. 

Mackey's first Iditarod win reinvigorated the imagination of mushing enthusiasts world wide. Lance was convinced he would win in 2007, especially after he drew lucky bib number thirteen - the same number both his father and brother wore the year they won. Talk about your Disney Fairytale story - he did just that. From there, we had the story of Lance dominating and infuriating his competitors in the Last Great Race. Many will remember the story of Lance sneaking out of the cabin in 2008 while Jeff King slept, solidifying his win against the "winningest musher". The two would be rivals for the next three years before Lance's string ended.

Lance's personal struggles reignited soon after his fourth Iditarod championship with the implosion of his marriage, and a string of financial problems. Like always, Lance was open with it all and didn't try to hide his struggles. After having to scratch from the 2016 race, Lance did not plan to run the race again - but like all of the other failed retirements of the Iditarod greats, he found himself back on the runners in 2019 just to have fun. His personal life was on the upswing again with a new partner Jenne and their two children. While his health was not the best, he just wanted to run the race and have fun. He came in 26th, and at the finisher's banquet won his entry fee into the 2020 race, so he signed up for 2020.

2020 would be a very difficult year for Lance. While he finished top 20 in the Iditarod, he would have it stripped away a couple months later when his drug test at the finish would come back showing he was on illegal drugs while racing. The musher once again was open and honest with fans, promising to get clean again. He would enter rehab and do the work. On his return to Alaska he would have just a brief bit of normalcy before he would lose Jenne in a single person ATV rollover accident. Lance was the one to find her on the trail. He was now a single dad of two little ones.

Lance chose to focus on his kids and in his hobby of car racing after that, and was enjoying racing cars in Alaska and Washington, when in the late summer of 2021 he was once again facing a cancer diagnosis. He chose to once again let the world in on his struggle and vowed to fight with every fiber and beat the cancer. By June of 2022 Lance would be in and out of the hospital and the outcome wasn't looking good. In August of 2022 he would give an interview to Iditarod Insider that gave an update on his condition. As always Lance was not ready to quit and was planning to fight to the end. 

That fight ended in the late hours of September 7 with family and friends at his side. 

And now the mushing world mourns. Tributes poured in all day on Thursday. Fans, photographers, journalists, politicians, and fellow mushers - some the bitterest of rivals - posted throughout the day favorite memories of the dog whisperer. If there was any question that Lance wasn't a beloved member of the mushing community, that can be put to rest now. One can only hope that Lance himself finally understood and accepted how much he meant to not just his fans, but his community.

Lance Mackey gives update on health

The mushing community and fandom heard from one of its greatest legends this past weekend when four-time Iditarod and Yukon Quest champion Lance Mackey spoke with Iditarod Insider's Greg Heister to give an update on the former champion's health. You may remember last year Mackey announced that his cancer had returned, but that didn't seem to slow Mackey down. Lance leased/sold his team to give the dogs a chance to run throughout the winter, and then focused on his health, family, and car racing. 

Fans didn't hear much from the musher himself, though every once in a while a friend posted pictures hanging out with the larger than life personality. Still, not much was being shared outside of his circle and as the mushing season of 2022 got underway many let it slip their mind that Lance was in another fight for his life. 

Rumblings of Lance's condition started to circulate in June as fans gathered at the Iditarod picnic. Whispers saying that Lance was "not doing well" was the worry no one seemed to want to say too loudly for fear of making it true. But true it seems to be as Lance Mackey would tell Greg Heister on August 4, 2022 that he'd been taken to first the MatSu Regional Hospital in Wasilla before being transferred to Providence Hospital in Anchorage right after Memorial Day weekend. 

By the end of June through the first part of August Mackey reported he had been in "hospitals or hospital like environments" sharing that when he wasn't in the hospital he was essentially bed ridden. While the two original "dark shadows" from his original diagnosis have been "taken care of" and are "gone," "other issues" have come up and "progressed rapidly." Lance also confessed that he does not want to know what his prognosis is, and that he feels like he has a lot of life left. He's on oxygen but says he can still walk - though he isn't getting around much right now - and says that he's lost at least thirty pounds and is "a rack of bones."

"I'm not scared of nothin'," Mackey told Heister, "It is what it is, and I ain't any more important than the rest of the people on this planet. When it's my stop, I'll get off the bus." He continued, "I'm more scared for my kids, you know, they've been a little traumatized," referring to the loss of their mother in 2020. Mackey's youngest son and daughter are staying with family while their dad is in the hospital. He's kept them away from most doctor visits, and they've only seen him a couple of times in the hospital. With their being so young he doesn't want them to be scared, and he doesn't want only negative feelings to be associated with doctors and hospitals. 

"It sucks, man, it sucks. I ain't gonna lie to you, it hurts, and it's a little bit emotional. But, it's reality, and you can't change that, ya know."

The interview runs just over 13 minutes with Heister, and the Iditarod chose to share the interview audio in full on their facebook page. You can listen to the full interview here.

After the interview was released, Lance Mackey took to his facebook page to share a condensed update saying much of the same as what the interview shared. 

When asked by Greg Heister if Lance had anything he wished to relay to his fans, Mackey spent a good deal of time apologizing for his "letting his supporters down" after 2020 when he tested positive for meth at the conclusion of the 2020 Iditarod. Lance acknowledged this was the first time he really had time to speak on it as he went from "the embarrassment" to going into rehab on the East Coast, to coming home and losing his partner-the mother of his children-Jenne. From there he was diagnosed with the return of his cancer. He hasn't fully spoken out about how sorry he was for letting everyone down.

Knowing Lances supportive fanbase, however, he need not worry about apologizing. Most who have followed his career know that he's been dealt a far crappier hand than most and they continue to encourage and pull for the king of comebacks. 

The entire mushing community is joining in pulling for Lance to make yet another comeback.