Chanse Vigen Opens Up 2025 Medicine Hat Stampede With A Day Money Run

Chanse Vigen – First Place On First Night Of The Medicine Hat Stampede
Photo By Shellie Scott

After a great 4 days of running at the Bonnyville Chuckwagon Championship, the WPCA Pro Tour resumed on Thursday night with the running of the Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede in Medicine Hat, Alberta. It was cool night and rainy weather the past few days made for slow racetrack conditions, but some outstanding chuckwagon races were witnessed by a near capacity crowd. Chanse Vigen came into this year’s event as the defending Medicine Hat champion, and picked up where he left off last year, and last week for that matter, as he took the Alberta AG Centre Fast Time of the Night after opening the show with the top time of 1:05.07.

Coming off barrel number one in heat number three, Vigen, driving the Volker Stevin Canada outfit placed first overall for the day by 63 one-hundredths of a second over former Medicine Hat Champion Kurt Bensmiller. Last week’s Bonnyville Chuckwagon Championship Champion Jamie Laboucane placed third, while Ross Knight and Wade Salmond rounded out the top five for the night.

The top 3 drivers in the aggregate after Saturday night will go into Sunday’s championship final heat. Winner of Sunday’s final wins the 2025 Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede Championship.

Day 2 of the Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede can be heard live on Friday, June 13, 2025 starting at 9:00pm Eastern, 8:00pm Central, and 7:00pm 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