By Laurence Heinen
Courtesy of Postmedia
Having to wait until the ninth heat to compete doesn’t bother Rae Croteau Jr. in the least.
After all, that just means he’s one of the guys to beat.
“I don’t know if anything’s easier, but if you’re in front, then there’s a little bit of calmness and confidence behind it,” said Croteau in regards to lining up in the final heat of the Cowboys Rangeland Derby alongside Chad Fike and defending Rangeland Derby champion Layne MacGillivray. “I want to describe it as there’s that calm before a storm. I have the calm, prepared feeling now as I get older.”
Through two nights of racing in front of fans at GMC Stadium, 2013 Rangeland Derby champ Jason Glass was atop the table with an aggregate time of 2:39.39 followed closely by Fike at 2:23.91.
Croteau, meanwhile, was lurking in third just 1/100ths of a second behind Fike.
“Obviously, being fast is a priority and that, but being clean and being consistent is what puts you there,” said Croteau, who finished with the third best time out of 27 drivers on both Friday and Saturday.
A third-generation driver whose dad Bert and grandfather Ray blazed the chuckwagon trail before him, Croteau has learned to try to have his horses running at their peak performance levels by the time the Calgary Stampede rolls around.
“You pretty much plan your whole spring around it and the horses are healthy and feeling good, so we’re right where we want to be,” said the 42-year-old reinsman from Rapid View, Sask.
Croteau, Fike and MacGillivray earned the right to close out the Calgary Stampede evening show’s featured sporting event for the first three nights of the 10-day spectacle by virtue of being the top three drivers in the World Professional Chuckwagon Association standings.
Following Sunday’s races, the three drivers with the top three running times will earn the right to compete in the ninth heat from Monday to Wednesday, while the remaining competitors will be re-seeded as well.
Leading into the Stampede, which isn’t a WPCA event, Croteau is atop the World standings with 665.5 points, followed closely by Fike (645.5) and MacGillivray (617.5).
“It’s gone well,” said Croteau, who qualified for the championship dash at the Bonnyville Chuckwagon Championship, the Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede and the Ponoka Stampede. “Like anybody, there’s a few hiccups — minor things — but I think a lot of what the World standings reflect is who’s had the least amount of hiccups and (who has) been consistent.”
Although he’s atop the WPCA pecking order right now, Croteau has yet to win a show title. He finished second to Luke Tournier in both Bonnyville and Ponoka, while he was third behind Chanse Vigen and Kirk Sutherland in Medicine Hat.
“I think it’s just a little lady luck is all,” he said when asked what it will take for him to win a championship dash. “When it’s your time, it’s your time. Just that and a good barrel draw. It’s hard to tell you the answer to that question.”
Over the next six nights of racing, Croteau will attempt to figure out how to stay in the top three in the aggregate standings in order to earn a spot to compete in the Rangeland Derby’s Dash for Cash next Sunday (July 14) afternoon.
His ultimate goal will then be to improve upon his second-place showing at the 2014 Stampede when he finished just 6/10ths of a second behind Kurt Bensmiller, who captured the first of his four Rangeland Derby titles.
Despite taking six years off from the sport from 2016 to 2021, Croteau made his return to the sport he loves with a vengeance when he finished fifth in the 2022 WPCA Pro Tour driver standings.
His extended break now just seems like a distant memory for Croteau, who didn’t miss a beat once he hopped back up on the seat of his wagon and took the reins once again.
“Everybody always asks me ‘How many years did you take off, like two or three?’ and I’m like, ‘No, six’,” Croteau said. “They’re like, ‘Holy cow, it didn’t seem like that long.’
“It’s just like a tiny gap in the radar, really. It doesn’t feel like that long. It feels like maybe a year.”
During the 10 days of the Rangeland Derby, Croteau will have a different advertiser adorning the canvas atop his chuckwagon.
“Throughout Calgary, we’ve just sold the days off so there’s a different company every day,” said Croteau, while noting his two main sponsors are Cinch Oilfield Hauling and TeKh Group. “Cinch kept the last day for themselves and TeKh is the last Saturday. It was a real team effort between TeKh and Cinch and the people that they know. They were able to get all the days sold. They did a lot of this on their own or for us. It’s a big team effort from everybody.”
