2025 Battle Of The Foothills Champions
Volker Stevin/Glover International Trucks Outfit
(L-R): Driver Chanse Vigen, Brie Vigen, Outriders Rory Gervais and Ethan Motowylo
Highwood Valley Ranch’s Wade Nelson Presenting
Photo By Shellie Scott
The mud was flying on a cool afternoon in High River, Alberta, as the finals of the Battle of the Foothills was run on a rainy Sunday day. Temperatures were 17°C, and overnight rains made for off racetrack conditions, but the near capacity High River race fans were enthusiastic nonetheless. When things wrapped up, it was a successful title defence for Chanse Vigen, driving the Volker Stevin Canada / Glover International Trucks outfit, and along with outriders Rory Gervais and Ethan Motowylo, who won the Championship Final Heat to claim the 2025 Battle of the Foothills Championship. It was the third time Vigen has won the Battle of the Foothills Championship, having won the championship in 2021 and last year in 2024.
In an exciting penalty-free championship final, Vigenwon the championship from barrel number four by a small 5 one-hundreds of a second over Cruise Bensmiller who placed second from barrel number three. Dustin Gorst finished in third place overall in the championship final from barrel number one, with Evan Magee, who was making his first career appearance in a championship final, placing fourth overall from barrel number two. It’s the third win on the season for Chanse Vigen who captured the Medicine Hat Stampede earlier in the year and the Calgary Stampede Rangeland Derby just two weeks ago.
On the day, there was a rare tie at the top of the leaderboard when Rae Croteau Jr. and Lane Tournier split the Alberta AG Centre Fast Time of the Night when both drivers posted identical times of 1:19.99. Kurt Bensmiller placed third, Chanse Vigen’s winning run was the fourth best time on the day, followed by Cruise Bensmiller in fifth place run on the night. It was the second time in four days that Lane Tournier won the Alberta AG Centre Fast Time of the Night.
The WPCA Pro Tour will now move into Strathmore for the Strathmore Stampede Championship starting on Friday, August 1, 2025. Day 1 of the Strathmore Stampede can be heard on WPCA Radio starting 9:00pm Eastern, 8:00pm Central, and 7:00pm Mountain time on 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
