2023 will be a year to remember for Mitch Sutherland, as he was awarded the WPCA’s Highest Annual Honour – the Chuckwagon Person of the Year. On the racetrack, Mitch posted seventeen top ten runs including a day money run at the Battle of the Foothills and seven runs that also cracked the top five. He qualified for the championship final heat at the Bonnyville Chuckwagon Championship, and capped off the year by winning the dash for cash in heat 5 at the Century Downs Racetrack and Casino World Chuckwagon Finals.
Mitch is a two time winner on the WPCA Pro Tour at the 2011 Richard Cosgrave Badlands Dinosaur Derby and 2015 Guy Weadick Days, was the 2011 WPCA Top Rookie Driver and in 2016 he qualified for Calgary Stampede championship final heat and had a horse named to the Calgary Stampede Equine Athlete of Excellence the same year.
A second generation chuckwagon driver, Mitch is the son of fellow driver Kirk Sutherland and father to outrider Weston Sutherland. Mitch started his career on the Western Chuckwagon Association (WCA) circuit in 2004 and was the overall WCA champion in back to back years in 2008 and 2009, and won twelve WCA show championships during his tenure with the WCA. He played football for the University of Alberta Golden Bears where he received All Canadian Honors, and was drafted in 2002 by the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football.
Mitch is an owner/operator of Hitch’Em Oilfield Hauling, and enjoys watching hockey. Mitch and his wife Heather have two children – Emerson and Weston – and make their home in Grande Prairie, Alberta.