By Laurence Heinen
It all started when Dean Dreger walked into Kelly’s Bar in Grande Prairie in the late 1980s.
It was there that Dreger caught the eye of Tara Sutherland, who he struck up a relationship with and eventually married.
Little did Dreger know that the fateful meeting would take his life in a completely new direction – one that led him down the long and winding chuckwagon racing track.
Of course, Kelly’s Bar was owned by Dreger’s eventual father-in-law Kelly Sutherland, who had already won five of his 12 World Champion Chuckwagon Driver titles by 1989.
Although he worked full time in the oilfield services industry, Dreger also took on a part-time job as a barn hand at the Sutherland Ranch to help his father-in-law prepare for the racing season.
“Usually, spring breakup was pretty slow for me in that business, so I’d always lend a hand with Kelly with the training,” explained Dreger, who learned all the ins and outs of the chuckwagon racing world by helping out the 12-time Calgary Stampede Rangeland Derby champion. “Most of the fun stories come from spring training where most of the action and incidents happen.”
“We had a pile of fun every day. If you’re training horses there’s really nothing better for entertainment. Those characters (the Sutherlands), they’re all pretty colourful people. I always said to them, sometimes I just go out on the road and pull my wallet out and have to look at my driver’s licence to see what my real name is.”
At the urging of his father-in-law, Dreger eventually started his own career as a driver in the late 1990s.
“I banged around every spring for about 10 years there and then Kelly one day he said, ‘You want to try this?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, sure’.”
The next day, Sutherland took his son-in-law into Grande Prairie to get sanctioned and Dreger started out driving on the World Professional Chuckwagon Association’s second circuit where Dreger was named Top Rookie Driver in 1999.
“I got the rookie (award) that year and I was kind of hooked,” said Dreger, who went on to start the Western Chuckwagon Association with fellow driver Leonard Delaronde in 2001 after the WPCA’s second circuit dissolved. “We ran that for quite awhile until Leonard retired and we just kept going. It was a nice little club up here. We ran eight shows and 40 days of racing every year. We had up to 21 wagons. I think over 10 years we sent 26 drivers over (to the WPCA).”
Dreger looks back fondly on his years competing on the WCA circuit, which eventually shut down following the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We ran that right until Covid and were very successful up there and always had the bug,” he said. “You learn how to drive in tight quarters. It didn’t cost too much to go because we didn’t have outriders. It was just a nice way to raise a family and work at the same time – be a weekend warrior type deal.”
Both Dreger and his son joined the WPCA in 2021 and they’re coming off their best seasons on the main circuit in 2023 when Tuff finished in 20th spot followed closely by his father in 24th.
“We’re sitting where we want to be right now,” said Dreger in regards to preparations for the 2024 season that starts next Wednesday with the opening show of the season in Grande Prairie. “The horses are fit and ready to run. All the cardio and basic exercise is complete.”
A strong start at the Grande Prairie Stompede, which runs from May 29 to June 2, would go a long way to helping the Dregers in their goal of rising into the top 10 driver standings this year.
“Hopefully penalty free is the key,” said the 57-year-old reinsman, while adding that he and Tuff have also set a goal of qualifying to compete at the Calgary Stampede next year. “You don’t have to run as fast then. Our goal is to make the top 10, for sure, or higher, so we get Calgary to look at us.”
“We’ll see how that goes. We were pretty close to getting in there last year looking at the numbers, but it was unfortunate we didn’t get to participate in Calgary this year. I guess there’s always next year. We’re doing our best to get there.”
