A vereran chuckwagon driver who retired from full time competition at the end of the 2022 season, Vern will return to action as a Permit Driver on the WPCA Pro Tour in 2025.
Vern joined the WPCA in 2016 and in six seasons has won four WPCA show championships including two Ponoka Stampede Championships. He was the aggregate winner at the the Ponoka Stampede three consecutive years, won the WPCA Clean Drive Award for two consecutive years in 2018 and 2019, received the Herman Flad Memorial Award, symbolic of the WPCA’s Most Improved Driver, and has had four horses recognized on the WPCA and Calgary Stampede Equine Outfits of Excellence. He has qualified for the Calgary Stampede’s championship final heat three times and six times he qualified for the GMC Rangeland Derby’s “Semi-Final Saturday.”
Prior to joining the WPCA in 2016, Vern had an incredible career on the Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association (CPCA) circuit, where he was the CPCA Champion Driver four-times, was the CPCA’s High Point Driver in 2012, won 11 CPCA show championships, and was the CPCA’s Most Improved Driver in 2004. Vern qualified for the championship dash for the CPCA Championship four consecutive years, and eight times in eleven years.
Vern works as a carpenter in the off season and enjoys sleigh rides, fishing, hunting, driving his Percheron Team, and going to the rink with the kids. Vern and Lisa Bensmiller have seven children – Brett, Brendan, Cruise, Paynton, August, Sienna and Madelyn – and make their home in Dewberry, Alberta.
