By Laurence Heinen
Heading into the final show of the World Professional Chuckwagon Association season, Jason Glass had a chance to do what Layne MacGillivray and Kris Molle did before him.
By winning the 2024 Century Downs Winners’ Zone Championship Dash on Monday afternoon in Ponoka at the Wild West WPCA World Chuckwagon Finals, Glass accomplished that goal.
Having also won the championship dash at the 2024 Cowboys Rangeland Derby at the Calgary Stampede on July 14, Glass duplicated the feat of winning two of the biggest races of the season, which is something Molle accomplished in 2022 before MacGillivray did the deed once again last year.
“The horses I’ve been driving all summer, they’re amazing,” Glass told Arnie Jackson shortly after accepting a cheque for $20,000 after beating Jamie Laboucane, Chad Fike and Chanse Vigen in the final championship dash of the 2024 campaign. “They just continued to get better.”
While Glass closed out the season in fine fashion in Ponoka, both MacGillivray and Molle won their Winners’ Zome Championship Dashes at Century Downs Racetrack and Casino the previous two years.
Glass definitely didn’t mind the venue change for this year’s WPCA Finals as he set a track record of 1:12.14 aboard his Birchcliff Energy wagon from barrel No. 1 on Monday to edge out Laboucane for the win by just 3/10ths of a second.
“We’re so happy to run here,” Glass said. “This is a world-class event. This town, facility, it’s amazing. I would like to stay here for half of the summer and camp and live here and race. That’s how good of a job they’re doing.
“They worked so hard on this racetrack. You don’t break track records without a perfect racetrack, so hats off to the Ponoka Stampede and our track guy Dean Dreger.”
Laboucane won $15,000 for finishing second, Chad Fike took home $10,000 for placing third, while recently crowned WPCA World Champion Driver Chanse Vigen earned $5,000 for his fourth-place showing.
“I knew I had my work cut out for me,” said Glass, who was able to outrace his competitors around the track after all four outfits had great starts. “All three of those other guys turned well (around the barrels).”
Glass further gave credit to all of the drivers who took part in the Wild West Finals.
“We’ve got an amazing group of wagon drivers and horses on these grounds,” said the 53-year-old reinsman from High River, Alta. “Our sport is going forward as it should. I’m just proud to be apart of it.
“I could name probably 10 guys that are going to be very, very tough to beat next year – and the other 30 guys, too. Everyone’s trying hard.”
A veteran driver with more than 35 years of experience, Glass said he paid his dues to get to the point where he’s consistently qualified to race in the later heats of the night at every show.
“Once you get to the level of those last three heats, it’s tough to crack into that calibre of horses and drivers,” Glass said. “That’s where a guy wants to be is in the last three heats and eventually try to be in the ninth. Once you get there, it makes it a lot easier because you race against the best and the best horses. The horses feed off of that and that’s why my horses are running so well right now because the last couple years, we’ve had to really improve to get up to the quality we’re at now.”
Looking forward, Glass said he’s going to add more horsepower over the off-season in an effort to remain competitive on the WPCA Pro Tour.
“I can’t wait for next year,” he said. “There’s two beautiful outfits there and I do have a third outfit that’s really nice. too. We’re going to add to that – some more young new blood and just take it one day, one year at a time. We’re not going anywhere.”
