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Photo by Eric Engman

Michael Machulsky

FAIRBANKS — Sebastian Schnuelle said he approached this year’s Yukon Quest as a camping trip. He finished it as a record-setting champion.

Schnuelle hung on to edge Hugh Neff by four minutes Tuesday morning in the closest Yukon Quest finish ever.

It was a dramatic conclusion to a race that Schnuelle said he believed he had no chance to win until three mushers with a seemingly insurmountable lead faltered on Eagle Summit early Monday morning.

“By Central (Sunday night) I had kind of given up. I was like ‘They are way too far ahead,” Schnuelle said as he stood atop a stage constructed of pallets at the finish line near the Cushman Street bridge.

Once Schnuelle got the lead, however, he held on. The wild-haired, 38-year-old German who lives outside Whitehorse, Yukon, left the final Two Rivers Checkpoint with a 35-minute advantage over Neff and gave back all but four minutes.

“Hugh kept me on the edge of my seat,” said Schnuelle, who listened to heavy-metal music by AC/DC on the nearly six-hour jaunt to cover the final 45 miles. “I could tell he was getting closer on the (Chena) river, so every corner I looked around and see if he’s there.”

Neff, of Annie Lake, Yukon, and Skagway, was getting regular feedback about his proximity to Schnuelle.

“People would tell me 15 minutes and 13 minutes and then I heard five minutes, but I never saw him,” Neff said. “He was always around the next corner.”

Schnuelle’s winning time — 9 days, 23 hours and 20 minutes — was 3 hours and 17 minutes faster than Lance Mackey’s record run in 2007. A good trail and minimal extreme weather on the 1,016-mile route contributed to a speedier race for most of the 29 mushers who started on Feb. 14 in Whitehorse.

Mackey, the Quest champion from 2005-08, and Hans Gatt, the winner from 2002-04, were among the hundreds of spectators to see the pair arrive at 10:44 and 10:48 a.m., respectively, with the temperature just below zero. Fourth in Dawson City, Gatt scratched there in order to save his team for the upcoming Iditarod, which he believes he can win.

Charlie Boulding’s five-minute win over Bruce Lee in 1991 had been the closest race before Tuesday.

Schnuelle wins $30,000 in a reduced purse of $151,000. He had never placed higher than sixth place before in five previous Quests.

Schnuelle was led to the finish by huskies Vasser, a 5-year-old male, and Popcorn, a 6-year-old male. His primary leader, Inuk, earlier helped guide the 10-dog team from Two Rivers and will share the Golden Harness Award with Popcorn, Schnuelle said.

Neff and Schnuelle, who have known each other on the mushing circuit for about a decade, congratulated each other at the finish.

“I’m happy for Sebastian,” Neff said, adding that but for one crucial moment this Quest was easily his best. “ Hopefully, one of these days I can get a chance to win a race as well.”

That crucial moment was a two-hour time penalty Neff incurred in Central for mushing on a road instead of the adjacent trail.

“I don’t really worry about the time penalty. That’s history,” said Neff, who won $22,000 and topped his third-place finish from 2005.

Schnuelle, however, recognized the importance of the penalty. He trailed Neff coming into Two River Checkpoint by 1 hour, 25 minutes but was allowed to leave 35 minutes before him after the penalty was assessed.

“In all honesty, I think that Hugh won this race. He would have been two hours ahead of me,” Schnuelle said. “He clearly had the better team. He knows that and I know that.”

Neff likely would have won the race, anyway, had he and Little not spent six to eight hours on a stormy Eagle Summit late Sunday and early Monday. The pair couldn’t find the trail near the top and ended up hunkering down in their sleds to sleep for several hours until daylight allowed them to rediscover the way.

Schnuelle also trailed William Kleedehn by more than eight hours leaving Central, but overtook him on Eagle Summit after Kleedehn’s team stalled because his main leader was in full-blown heat. After spending 30 minutes to help Kleedehn get partway up Eagle Summit, Schnuelle, to his surprise, spotted Neff and Little about to finally get over the top of the 3,685-foot mountain.

“That’s when I turned around to William and was like ‘William, you’re on your own now,” Schnuelle said. “All of a sudden they were close, from eight hours ahead of me to right there, so that was too tempting.”

Schnuelle took off in pursuit, passing Little on Rosebud Summit Monday and gaining some ground on Neff during an 82-mile push to Two Rivers.

When Schnuelle started this Quest, he was considering touring it with Mark Sleightholme, an Englishman who was running a team of his dogs. However, Schnuelle got antsy after a couple days and left Sleightholme behind, but did not get caught up chasing the leaders. He rarely saw them because he stuck to a schedule of running from about 5-11 a.m. or noon, camping through the heat of the day and then running again from 5 p.m. to midnight.

“I camped pretty much the whole way,” said Schnuelle, a methodical musher known to pore over Quest and Iditarod statistics during the off-season. “I kept on doing that (schedule) no matter where I was.”

Figuring the leaders were out of reach in Central, Schnuelle even extended his wake-up time from 1 to 3 a.m.

“I wasn’t even in race mode anymore,” Schnuelle said. “Then things changed coming up to (Eagle) Summit and there they are.”

The final run from Twin Bears Campground to the finish was not stressful though he sensed Neff behind him.

“I would have been fine either way (with first or second place),” Schnuelle said. “I was enjoying myself to the fullest.”

Asked what his reaction would have been had Neff come into view, Schnuelle said “I think I would have started jogging for sure. If I would have seen him, I would have gotten a heart attack.”

Neff responded jokingly when asked what might have happened had he spotted the bedraggled Schnuelle.

“(The dogs) probably would have run the other direction because they would have thought he was Sasquatch,” Neff said.

Schnuelle, one of a handful of Germans who have moved to North America and developed a passion for mushing, surprised reporters in Central by revealing that this would be his last Quest because he’ll now focus on his sled dog and snowmachine tour business. Schnuelle still plans to run the Iditarod this year and next, and finished a career-best 10th there in 2008.

Winning the race did not change his plans to retire from the Quest.

“How much easier can it be? Step off on a good note. (It’s) perfect,” he said.

Neff came onto the Quest scene in 2000 and initially had a poor reputation because of dog care that was deemed suspect and clashes with race veterinarians and officials. He even coined the nickname “Huge Mess” and vowed to quit running the race because of its organization and management.

Neff also had a history of running his team hard for the first half to Dawson City in a top-five position, only to drop back multiple spots as his team marched towards the finish.

This year was different, however, as 3-year-old sibling leaders Annie, Watson and Walter enabled him to keep pace despite arriving at checkpoints a couple of hours behind Kleedehn but then taking less rest to leave right after him.

“It was easily my best Quest run ever, except for one moment,” said Neff, adding that he looked forward to a postrace shower, sauna and beer. “It was like living in a fantasy world for a week and a half.”