ANCHORAGE, ALASKA ? Four-time Iditarod champion Doug Swingley must be one of the most practical people on the planet.

When asked why, at age 50, he is still willing to hang onto the back of a sled for more than 1,000 bumpy miles from Anchorage to Nome, his answer was quick and to the point.

“I need a new pickup truck. I am tired of these old pickups falling apart,” Swingley said, from his home in Lincoln, Mont., where he was busy making gourmet shrimp and garlic dishes to eat along the trail.

Eighty-seven mushers are signed up for the 2004 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race to start next Saturday from downtown Anchorage.

They’ll come from Alaska, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming, as well as nine other countries, including Germany, Italy and Norway.

The Iditarod is held each year to commemorate a 1925 dash to Nome in which sled dogs and mushers delivered lifesaving diphtheria serum to the historic Gold Rush town.

In addition to more than a half-million dollars in prize money earned since competing as a rookie in 1992, Swingley has won four brand new pickup trucks — one for each time he crossed the finish line first. He won in 1995, and then came back to dominate the race in 1999, 2000 and 2001. His prize money totals $501,615.

Swingley sold two of the top-of-the line trucks donated by an Anchorage dealership to buy a Cessna 180, but still has the two older ones.

“I am hungry for that new truck. That always makes me dangerous, when I’m hungry,” Swingley said.

In 2002, he came in 40th after deciding to run a different kind of race. Swingley took his time, enjoyed the scenery, and got married at the end of the trail in Nome to Melanie Shirilla, with one of his favorite dogs acting as ring bearer.

Four-time Iditarod champion Doug Swingley drives his dog team across the frozen Golovin Bay about 100 miles from the finish line in the 2001 race.

The close-knit community of Alaska mushers has never accepted Swingley, perhaps because of resentment from his winning ways, or perhaps because he was the only non-Alaskan to win the race until last year when Norway’s Robert Sorlie won. Sorlie is not competing this year.

Swingley said Sorlie’s win may work to his advantage.

“Maybe because a Norwegian won last time, maybe they will want an American to win,” he said.

In a 2002 interview with The Associated Press, Swingley said he was taking a break from the race, in part because he was fed up with the resentment, the snide comments from other mushers and what he considered to be bias media. He said he hoped they’d find someone new to kick around.

Swingley’s had an attitude change since then.

“I don’t give a rat’s butt about the Alaska mushers,” he said. “I have goals for myself. I never race against competition. I consider myself as the ultimate competitor and so I try to beat myself first.”