After a successful 2024 season, the World Professional Chuckwagon Association is welcoming a group of talented permit drivers, ready to prove themselves worthy of having a seat in one of the most exciting forms of racing in the world, the 2025 WPCA Pro Tour presented by GMC.
10 permit drivers will line up on the track at the Grande Prairie Stompede come May 28th, all with varying degrees of pressure on their shoulders. As the conveyer belt of chuckwagon racing talent continues moving, get to know the ten drivers looking to earn a seat beyond the WPCA races in Bonnyville.
Vern NOLIN retired from full time competition at the end of the 2022 season and returns to action as a Permit Driver on the WPCA Pro Tour in 2025. In six seasons with the WPCA, Vern won four WPCA show championships including the Ponoka Stampede two times. 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, 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.” Full Driver Profile
Logan GORST is one of the most accomplished drivers the past few years and returns to the WPCA Pro Tour as a Permit Driver. In 2019 Logan captured the Calgary Stampede Rangeland Derby and was the 2021 Calgary Stampede Aggregate winner as well. He competed full time on the WPCA Pro Tour between 2012 and 2019 and in 2018 was the recipient of the WPCA’s highest annual award – the Chuckwagon Person of the Year. He won the Calgary Stampede Safety Award in 2019, the same year he had one horse named to the Calgary Stampede Equine Athlete of Excellence and one horse name to the WPCA Equine Outfit of Excellence. Full Driver Profile
Troy FLAD is a veteran chuckwagon driver with over 30 years experience, Troy was the Aggregate Winner at the Lloydminster Colonial Days Fair in 2015, received the WPCA Showmanship Award winner for Professionalism in 2003, and has qualified for three championship final heats, including two at chuckwagon racing’s biggest events at the Ponoka Stampede and Edmonton’s Chuckwagon Derby. Full Driver Profile
Jordie FIKE is a fourth generation chuckwagon man. He started driving with the WPCA in 2010 and was the WPCA’s Top Rookie Driver that year and just the fourth driver in WPCA history to qualify for the Calgary Stampede Rangeland Derby in his rookie year. Jordie spent his first two years as a driver on the CPCA circuit where he won the Saskatoon Exhibition Derby, was the CPCA’s Most Improved Driver in 2009, and received the CPCA’s Most Sportsmanlike Driver award in 2008. Full Driver Profile
Todd MCCRACKEN returns to the WPCA and will be looking to solidify a spot on the WPCA Pro Tour. After a successful career in the Western Chuckwagon Association (WCA) that began in 2008. Todd made the full-time jump to the WPCA in 2023 and came home with the WPCA’s Top Rookie Driver Award. He started off the 2023 season with a bang recording a 3rd place run on night 2 of the Grande Prairie Stompede, and over the season he recorded five top-ten runs, including two runs that placed inside the top five. Full Driver Profile
Dale YOUNG made his WPCA rookie driver debut at the Grande Prairie Stompede in 2024 and completed the season as the WPCA’s top rookie driver. A second-generation chuckwagon driver, Dale started driving pony chuckwagons when he was just 15 and has competed annually for the last 30 years. He won nearly 10 show championships, with his most prestigious win coming at the Ponoka Stampede. Full Driver Profile
D.J. KING enjoyed his most successful season on the CPCA circuit in 2023. He won the CPCA Safe Driver Award and had a horse named to the CPCA Equine Outfit of Excellence. He qualified for championship final heats at the Onion Lake Sports Day, the North American Chuckwagon Championship, The Frog Lake First Nation, the Poundmaker Cree Nation, and for the first time in his career, the CPCA Championship dash. Full Driver Profile
Dallas DYCK is a veteran driver with over twenty years of experience. Dallas will be making his debut on the WPCA Pro Tour as a Permit Driver in 2025 after spending his entire career on the Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association (CPCA) circuit. In 2023 Dallas won his first Calgary Stampede Day Money, cashing the top cheque on night nine, and in 2019 he had a horse named to the Calgary Stampede’s Equine Athlete of Excellence. Full Driver Profile
Ryan BAPTISTE will be making his debut on the WPCA Pro Tour as a Permit Driver in 2025 after spending the first 15 years of his career on the Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association (CPCA) circuit. In 2024, Ryan won the Lloydminster CPCA Finals show, was the reserve champion at the Wainwright Stampede, and placed two wagons inside the top ten at the Days of Thunder at Little Pine. Ryan is a two-time winner of the CPCA’s Safe Driver Award and a two-time winner of the CPCA’s Most Improved Driver Award. Full Driver Profile
Rocky BREMNER is a second-generation chuckwagon driver. He began his career as an outrider in 1995 on the Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association (CPCA) circuit, then made the move to the wagon box as a chuckwagon driver in 2015. Rocky was part of Team Ray Mitsuing that won the CPCA Canada Cup at the Meadow Lake Stampede in his rookie season, and he was part of Team Logan Gorst that won the Percy Derocher Memorial Championship Cup at Meadow Lake in 2021. He was named the CPCA’s Most Improved Driver in 2019. Full Driver Profile
Of these 10 permit drivers, the 4 drivers with the most points after the WPCA races in Bonnyville will earn a spot to join the WPCA for the remainder of the tour.
