Time for another update. It looks to me like it's shaping up as a 6-man race at this point.
There are currently 9 mushers in Takotna. The first 3 haven't won the race before, and the next 3 guys have won it a total of 8 times, and had a faster time over the last 2 legs of the race. The last 3 into Takotna are already at least 3 hours behind the leaders and aren't moving fast enough.
They all went without resting for 9 or 10 hours before reaching Takotna, so they should all rest between 4 and 6 hours before leaving. I don't think anybody will stop at Ophir, the next checkpoint (only a 25 mile leg), but almost all of them will rest on the trail (cabin or campsite) before they reach the town of Iditarod, which is 90 miles past Ophir.
Place..Name....arrival at chkpoint..bib#-diff...net deficit..recent mph...prev net deficit
1..Burmeister..Takotna..02:44 am.....56...00....0 h 00 m.......5.97.............n/a
2..Neff........Takotna..03:03 am.....55...02....0 h 21 m.......5.84.............n/a
3..Schnuelle...Takotna..03:14 am.....34...44....1 h 18 m.......6.07.............n/a
4..Mackey......Takotna..04:00 am.....47...18....1 h 34 m.......6.71.............n/a
5..King........Takotna..04:21 am.....41...30....2 h 07 m.......6.63.............n/a
6..Seavey, M...Takotna..04:45 am.....21...70....3 h 11 m.......6.97.............n/a
7..Gebhardt....Takotna..04:58 am.....15...82....3 h 36 m.......5.32.............n/a
8..Andersen,B..Takotna..05:21 am.....18...76....3 h 53 m.......7.01.............n/a
9..Baker.......Takotna..06:31 am.....44...24....4 h 11 m.......5.78.............n/a
edit - It appears that all of the top guys are currently taking their '24-hour' rest in Takotna. Buser has now left Takotna, but he arrived over 11 hours after the leader, so he should be a non-factor in the race, and I won't track of anybody else going ahead of the leaders unless I see that somebody's within 4 hours of the leaders after he takes his own '24-hour' rest. After somebody takes his '24-hour' rest, the 'diff' column behind the bib# will go to zero, and will no longer affect the net deficit.