Chanse Vigen – Alberta Ag Centre Top Time Of The Night for The Second Time This Week In Medicine Hat
Photo By Shellie Scott
It was a perfect day for chuckwagon racing on Saturday night in Southeastern Alberta. Under mainly sunny skies and temperatures of 24°C, racetrack conditions were fast for day 3 of the Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede. It was the final night for the drivers to try and qualify for the $10,000.00 Championship Final Heat on Sunday afternoon. When the evening was complete Chanse Vigen, Kurt Bensmiller and Rae Croteau Jr. will be the three drivers bidding for the 2025 Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede championship.
Defending Medicine Hat Champion Chanse Vigen, driving the Volker Stevin Canada outfit, qualified for championship final in first place overall with a three-day combined time of 3:10.13. 2019 Medicine Hat Champion Kurt Bensmiller held onto second place overall, 1.19 seconds behind the overall leader Chanse Vigen, with Rae Croteau Jr. making a huge jump grabbing the third and final qualifying spot in Sunday’s final after starting the day in eleventh place overall. Last week’s Bonnyville Champion Jamie Laboucane was in the crying hole, placing fourth overall and missed the Championship Final Heat by just 26 one-hundredths of a second, with injured driver Troy Dorchester’s wagon, which has been driven the entire meet by Roger Moore, rounding out the top five overall after three runs after starting the day way back in thirteenth place overall.
As far as day results are concerned, for the second time in three runs, Chanse Vigen grabbed the Alberta AG Centre Fast Time of the Night from barrel number three in the third heat. Vigen’s Volker Steven Canada outfit won top money for the night by a small 11 one-hundredths of a second margin over Troy Dorchester’s Roger Moore driven wagon. Rae Croteau Jr. was third, while Jamie Laboucane and Darcy Flad placed fourth and fifth respectively on the night.
The final day of the Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede is scheduled to go on Sunday afternoon, June 15, 2025 and can be heard live starting at 4:00pm Eastern, 3:00pm Central, and 2:00pm Mountain time on 96.5 The Ranch, or streaming options are available through the WPCA Website at wpca.com, iHeart Radio website/app or the Radioplayer Canada website/app.
Billy Melville
