Chad Fike – First Place Everywhere On Night 1 At Century Downs Racetrack And Casino
Photo By Shellie Scott
Night one of the Century Downs World Chuckwagon Finals is in the books and opening night was a tremendous success. The races were run in front of a near capacity crowd, it was a warm 23°C under a few clouds with excellent racetrack conditions. With over $300,000.00 in cash and prized on the line over the 5-day event.
In the main event, Chad Fike was tops among the elite twelve drivers who qualified for the Century Downs “Winners’ Zone” Championship Playoff round and earned 12 playoff points for his outstanding run. Layne MacGillivray was right behind in second place, with Rae Croteau Jr., Kurt Bensmiller and Ross Knight rounding out the top five. The 4 drivers in the playoff points standings after Saturday night will compete in the Century Downs “Winners’ Zone” Championship Dash where they will be racing for $75,000.00 cash and the prestige of being recognized as the Century Downs “Winners’ Zone” Champion.
For the 36 drivers who are racing for the Aggregate Championship at the Century Downs World Chuckwagon Finals, it was Chad Fike who was the fast man with a penalty free run of 1:25.66. In heat number 8 from barrel number 2, Fike, driving the Propak Systems Ltd. outfit, was tops on the day with a 1:25.36. That put him just 3 one-hundredths of a second faster than World Points leader Layne MacGillivray. Kelly Morin, Rae Croteau Jr. and Kurt Bensmiller rounded out the top five on opening night. The driver posting the best 4-day aggregate time after Saturday’s run will be declared the champion of the Century Downs race meet.
In the race for the World Chuckwagon Championship, Layne MacGillivray, in search of his first career World Chuckwagon Championship, came into the final show of the season with a slim 99.5-point lead over reigning World Champion Obrey Motowylo. After the completion of the first night of racing, MacGillivray’s lead is now 103 points over 4-time World Champion Kurt Bensmiller. The World Champion Chuckwagon Driver will also be declared on Saturday evening.
Gates open at 5:00pm local time. Night 2 of the Century Downs Word Finals can be heard live on Thursday night, August 25, 2022 Real Country 910, or seen on the Cowboy Channel + Streaming App, starting at 8:30pm Eastern, 7:30pm Central and 6:30pm Mountain Time.
Billy Melville
