By Laurence Heinen
Winning the Battle of the Rockies on Monday with driver Chanse Vigen had extra-special meaning for outrider Rory Armstrong.
One year ago, Armstrong rode for Jason Glass at the World Professional Chuckwagon Association show in Rocky Mountain House, Alta.
“I had Jason Glass as my first call last year,” said Armstrong, who helped the veteran chuckwagon driver to a respectable fourth-place showing at the 2023 Battle of the Rockies.
Having already won titles at the Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede, Battle of the Foothills in High River, Alta., and the Strathmore Stampede, Armstrong hitched his wagon – so to speak – to Vigen’s Terrafirma Resources outfit once again in Rocky Mountain House and the move paid off as he added to his collection of firsts this season.
“That was especially special to win Rocky behind him this year,” said the 28-year-old outrider from Elnora, Alta. “I had never won that show before. Same with Medicine Hat and Strathmore, I hadn’t won behind Chanse before until this summer.”
“I only have one more show to win and then I’ll have them all covered.”
That show just happens to be the Rangeland Derby that Glass recently won with outriders Dayton Sutherland and Tyson Whitehead at the 2024 Calgary Stampede.
“That’s the only one I’m missing so far,” said Armstrong, who’s happy with his decision to make Vigen his first-call driver this season. “It’s a lot of fun. You’ve got to be on your ‘A’ game and in the zone to chase after him. He’s got really nice horses to ride and fast ones.”
Although Armstrong wasn’t with him when he won last year in Rocky Mountain House on his way to securing his first World title as a driver in 2023, Vigen was happy to have one of his main men back for his second straight Battle of the Rockies championship.
“Rory Armstrong has been with me for a number of years,” said Vigen, who moved back atop the World standings with 1293.5 points, which is 80.5 more than his cousin and fellow driver Rae Croteau Jr. “He’s first call on stove and he’s been clean, knock on wood, all summer.”
Armstrong has been having great success working with fellow outrider Ethan Motowylo, who takes care of holding the leaders, as a team behind Vigen.
“We work together really well – it’s fun,” Armstrong said. “I’m back on the stove. As soon as that horn blows, you’ve got to throw that stove in and run as fast as you can to keep up to (Vigen).”
The pair had their work cut out for them this past weekend when rainy conditions made the North Saskatchewan River Park track a tad bit muddy for the first three nights of racing.
“It was pretty wild being able to run in the mud there,” Armstrong said. “It was keeping things very interesting with the earlier heats being able to vie for the title there, too.”
One of those drivers in the earlier heats was Chance Thomson, who Armstrong also rode for and helped him finish fourth in the aggregate standings behind Vigen, Wade Salmond and Luke Tournier.
Interestingly, Armstrong has also worked for Chance Bensmiller this season.
“When I go into a race, I’ll say, ‘I’ve got three chances to win tonight,’” Armstrong said with a laugh. “People are looking at me like, ‘I get it now.”
After races were cancelled last Sunday due to unsafe racetrack conditions, Vigen was able to wrap up the aggregate title one night later by just 29/100ths of a second ahead of Salmond, who had Monday’s third-fastest time of 1:16.20. Salmond was only narrowly beaten out by Kurt Bensmiller (1:16.04) and Glass (1:16.20).
“It was really close,” said Armstrong, who helped Vigen finish fourth on the night in 1:17.29. “That was the best the track’s been all week on Monday. It was a little dicey the first few nights with the horses kind of slipping a bit with he muddy conditions trying to stay away from the rooster tails the wagons were throwing.”
A third-generation competitor, Armstrong’s dad Randy was crowned as a World champion outrider in both 1984 and 1987. The younger Armstrong would like nothing more than to follow in his dad’s footsteps before even thinking about taking up driving, which is something his grandfather Orville Strandquist did during his storied career.
“I’ll eventually drive after I win the World,” said Armstrong, whose other grandfather Lyle Armstrong was also an outrider as was his cousin Eddie Melville.
Currently sixth in the outriding standings behind Rory Gervais, Ethan Motowylo and his younger brother Hayden, Trey MacGillivray and Brendan Nolin, Armstrong knows he has work to do to get up to that level.
“I’m getting up there,” said Armstrong, who also works as a farmer and a rancher. “There’s always a chance.”
One thing that makes Armstrong unique is that he owns his own outriding horse, Standard, who he has rented out to drivers like Thomson, Dayton Sutherland and Preston Faithful this season.
“Nobody does it anymore,” said Armstrong, who rode Standard on two nights behind Thomson in Rocky Mountain House. “My dad used to do it in the 80s. He’d carry two down the road and rent them out to drivers.”
Thomson already let Armstrong know that Standard will see action at the season-ending Wild West WPCA World Chuckwagon Finals which run from Wednesday to the following Sunday, Sept. 1, in Ponoka.
“I’ve been using him lots and he’s been giving me the same great trip every time,” said Armstrong of his 14-year-old horse, who he believes has another four good years of racing left in him. “He’s a very high, energetic horse.”
In addition to riding for Vigen, Armstrong has lined up plenty of other work in Ponoka.
“I should have six or seven rides up there again, so it’ll work out,” Armstrong said.
Helping Vigen wrap up his second-straight World title is on Armstrong’s to-do list heading into the final WPCA Pro Tour stop of the season.
“That Ponoka track is Chanse Vigen’s best-running track,” said Armstrong, who marvelled at Vigen’s driving skills when his boss won six straight day monies on his way to capturing the 2023 Ponoka Stampede title. “He has the best luck there and the horses run great.
“It sure shows how much hard work you’ve got to put in throughout the spring and summer to be able to pull off a World championship for a driver.”
