By Laurence Heinen
There’s no place like home for Jason Glass.
Returning to his familiar stomping grounds after spending the better part of two months on the road to start the World Professional Chuckwagon Association season, Glass was happy to get back to the High River area for a two-week span.
“It’s so great, because we’ve been going since the middle of May,” said Glass in regards to getting to compete at the Battle of the Foothills, which started with three days of racing at the High River Ag Society grounds from last Friday to Sunday. “Just to get home and get these horses on some grass and in a familiar barn and corrals and just to get caught up on everything at home and have the family at home and sleep in our own beds, it’s fantastic. Then racing in High River, there’s lots of family and friends, so it’s always good to get home.”
Since the High River venue is so close to his house, Glass only has to load up the horses he’s using on a particular race night before transporting them on a quick 10-minute drive to the track.
“Just whatever I plan on driving and outriding, we bring those six in and the rest are at home very comfy and ready for whenever we need ’em,” said the veteran 52-year-old reinsman, who has guided his Birchcliff Energy outfit to fourth place in the aggregate standings with a total time of 3:58.14 through the first three nights of racing action.
Like they did back in 2021, the WPCA and High River Ag Society have teamed up to put on a six-day championship event over two weekends.
After all 10 heats are complete on Friday night, the top eight pilots in the aggregate standings will advance to Semi Final Saturday. From there, the four drivers with the fastest times will qualify for Sunday’s Championship Dash For Cash.
Following the first weekend of action, Jamie Laboucane has his Davco Industrial Construction Services outfit in top spot with an impressive aggregate time of 3:55.16, which is 2.48 seconds ahead of Chad Fike’s McLean Contracting wagon.
Aboard his Ridgeline Electrical Services rig, Kris Molle currently holds down third spot, just ahead of Glass.
“It feels good,” said Glass, who won his hometown title in both 2000 and 2007. “It’s been a few years. We’re trying to build these horses back up to where we have a shot at winning something. It feels really good. I’ve got a bunch of young, nice horses mixed with some of my older veteran horses.”
Chanse Vigen, Wade Salmond, Evan Salmond and Dean Dreger round out the top eight, while a whole host of other drivers – including Kurt Bensmiller, Chance Flad, Dustin Gorst, Mitch Sutherland, Layne MacGillivray, Chance Bensmiller, Chance Thomson and last year’s Battle of the Foothills champion Rae Croteau Jr. – all still have a chance to be in the mix come Saturday.
Although he finished 11th overall on Sunday, Glass still praised his outfit of Mister and Bear, on left and right lead respectively, as well Shooter and Chester, who served admirably as his left and right wheelers.
“We’ve got lots of nice horses and they’re really behaving and doing what I’m asking of ’em,” Glass said. “We’re definitely in the running to win some stuff.
“Everyone works so hard at what we do, so anytime you can beat the rest of the guys, it always feels pretty special.”
What many people don’t know is that Glass and Vigen are teaming up in High River to run a second outfit during the six-night show.
While Vigen had his horse Mossleigh on right lead for his Blackstone Drilling Fluids outfit, Glass also loaned him Harley (left leader), Steel (right wheeler) and Baffort (left wheeler), as well as outriding horses Rock and Talk.
“I’ve got quite a few horses, so it’s nice,” said Glass of teaming up with his racing colleague to enter a second wagon, which Vigen agreed to drive. “They can’t stand around. They need to exercise. They need to run. I keep them fit and exercised, but they need to actually get on the track and have that pressure and blow out that acid inside of them. They’re built to run and they love to run.”
Getting more horses into competition so close to his homestead has also proven to be a boon for Glass.
“It’s no different than any other sporting event, really, except for these horses can’t talk, so we’ve got to try and figure out where they fit in, how they run, who’s healthy, who’s not and who’s ready,” he said. “There’s older horses, there’s rookies, there’s ones that are not much fun to be around. They all have different personalities. That’s the best thing about this sport. It’s a huge challenge every day just to figure it all out.”
PHOTO CREDIT – Photos by Lorie
