FAIRBANKS — Numerous captains have risen above the rest in the history of the Yukon 800 Marathon riverboat race. Bill Page has outlasted them all.
Bob Toombs was the first three-time winner (1963, 1964 and 1967). Jim Movius was the first three-time winner on the course from Fairbanks to Galena and back (1973, 1977 and 1979). Ed Gustafson was the first to win three straight years (1980-82). Wes Alexander is the only captain to win five straight years (1986-1990). Harold Attla is the only seven-time champion (1995, 1997, 2001-2003, 2005 and 2007). None of those men can say they raced in five different decades.
And Page has won the Fairbanks Outboard Association’s grand prize five times, including at least once in each of his first four decades — 1978, 1985, 1991, 1999 and 2004.
Like the Energizer Bunny, Page just keeps going and going and going.
When he reaches the starting line for this year’s Yukon 800 Marathon Saturday at Pike’s Landing, he will be entering his fifth decade on the river, most of that time spent as captain of boats owned by Moe Samuelson.
“More than anything, it’s the camaraderie that keeps me coming back,” Page said earlier this week, about why he continues to race long after he retired from a 25-year job as a physical education teacher with the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.
The race check-in and draw for starting positions for the 2010 Doyon Limited Yukon 800 Marathon is scheduled from 4:30-8 tonight at Pike’s Landing. The start of the 800-mile race from Fairbanks to Galena and back is at 11 a.m. Saturday at Pike’s. After an overnight stay in Galena, the race restarts at 6 a.m. Sunday, with the winners expected to return to Pike’s Landing between noon and 1 p.m.
During his 40 years in racing, Page has seen just about everything racing has had to offer. He’s been involved in death-defying crashes — some he admits are his fault, others not; he’s flipped his boat on several occasions; he’s run up dry sloughs and taken the wrong shortcuts; and he still keeps going.
“I don’t want to say, but I’ve got a pretty good idea,” Page responded when asked about when he might step aside as captain. “We’ve got to get the value up on this boat.”
This boat is “Slo Mo,” which Samuelson bought from Clinton Huntington last year. The boat has been the fastest from Fairbanks to Galena for the past two years, Page said.
Page has made some modifications he says will make the sleek racing machine even faster this time around.
One of those changes has been to change the motor from a long shaft (Page’s favorite) to a short shaft (Samuelson’s favorite) for this year’s Yukon 800.
“We’ve been two old guys going round and round about this for year’s now,” Page said. “After all these years, we’ve switched and we’ve gotten more speed so far.”
Page has won the first two races of the season — Nenana River Daze and Yukon 800 Shakedown — in convincing fashion.
Each of Page’s wins has its own story. Some have been by luck, while others, as in 1985, were almost a clean sweep in both directions.
“We were really cruising that year,” Page said of the 1985 win. “Just below Luke’s fish camp, the engine just quit and we couldn’t figure out why. Then I remembered that we switched to a Movius 40 gallon gas tank that had two lines. Once I switched lines, we were cruising again.”
Page hopes to be cruising like that again this weekend.
Contact sports editor Bob Eley at .
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