By Laurence Heinen
Red and Max did their jobs.
So did Laser and Tex.
Chanse Vigen was just along for the ride.
Off of the fourth barrel – which he chose due to the strength of his horses – Vigen guided his Wentworth Oilfield Services Ltd. outfit to victory in the $75,000 Tommy Dorchester Championship final heat of the Ponoka Stampede on Sunday.
“I just had a lot of confidence,” Vigen told Arnie Jackson after finishing ahead of fellow drivers Kris Molle, Layne MacGillivray and Evan Salmond to capture his first-ever Ponoka Stampede title. “Unbelievable week. The team is just so dialed in from start to finish. We were on a mission.
“The crew has just been working so hard. The horses are right where they need to be. Every little thing that we’ve got to do, we’ve been doing it. We’ve been taking care of our business and it’s showing.”
Vigen further explained that he had no doubt that his speedy thoroughbred horses – Red and Max on the lead team and Laser and Tex as his wheelers – could get the job done under immense pressure.
“They’re the best No. 4 barrel outfit in the world and I think they proved that,” said the 39-year-old reinsman, who also won his hometown Grande Prairie Stompede title to kick off the World Professional Chuckwagon Association season schedule in early June. “All the credit goes to the horses and the crew. I’m just along for the ride and just very fortunate to have the team and the group of horses that we have.”
Those equine athletes included the foursome of Phoenix, Beau, Alfie and Nibbles, which he runs off of the No. 1 and 2 barrels, as well as outriding horses Standard, Coco, Code 8 and Emmett.
“We’re keeping it pretty simple,” said Vigen, who also won a new 2023 GMC truck for compiling the best four-day aggregate time of 4:56.44, which was an impressive 5.9 seconds ahead of MacGillivray, the second-place finisher. “We’re driving one outfit off of Barrel 1 and 2 – the long barrels – and another one off of 3 and 4 and we’re chipping that third outfit in when we see fit. I stuck to two outfits here (in Ponoka). I’m going to do the same thing in Calgary (at the Cowboys Rangeland Derby from July 7-16) and hopefully we can see some success there as well.”
As reported by WPCA colour commentator and historian Billy Melville earlier in the week, Vigen’s impressive victory in Ponoka was his sixth straight first-place run over six consecutive nights.
That broke the previous record of five consecutive first-place runs by Dale Flett at the Calgary Stampede in 1962, which was eventually ended on the final night by Chanse Vigen’s grandfather – Ralph Vigen.
“I just love Ponoka,” Vigen exclaimed. “I love competing here. It’s a special place to compete. There’s something in the air at places like Grande Prairie, Ponoka and Calgary. I’m just so proud to be part of history and to be amongst some of the great names like Ralph Vigen, my grandfather. I’m really proud to get on the board with a show like this. I don’t know, man. It’s just a hell of a weekend. I’m just really proud of everybody involved with my team.”
That team included his two main outriders Rory Armstrong and Ethan Motowylo along with Trey MacGillivray and Chance Flad, who filled in for Motowylo on Saturday and Sunday nights respectively.
“It’s a tough job,” said Vigen, speaking from first-hand experience seeing as how he was a world-class outrider for almost a decade before he took up driving in 2008. “They’re like kickers in football. They don’t get the credit when they do their job and they’re the goat when they don’t.
“Motowylo did a hell of a job holding leaders all week and Chance Flad did a great job filling in for him (on Sunday). Rory was with me for six days on stove. They weren’t just catching any other wagon. The wagon was day money every night and that’s hard for them too, right, and they caught me every night. I know how hard that job can be especially in pressure moments like (the championship final).”
With two show titles under his belt this season, Vigen would like nothing more than to win his first-ever Rangeland Derby title, which is something his grandfather Ralph accomplished on three occasions in 1972, 1976 and 1985.
“We’ve got a ton of momentum and we’ve got a ton of good energy in the barn and everything’s clicking,” said Vigen, who won the Orville Strandquist Memorial Trophy as the Calgary Stampede’s top rookie driver in 2013. “We’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing and not get away from what got us here and what won us Ponoka and roll that into Calgary and just try to keep the ball rolling and keep our foot on the gas.”
To do that, he’ll have to fend off challenges from the likes of four-time Rangeland Derby champ Kurt Bensmiller as well as from Molle, who raced to show victories in Grande Prairie and Calgary last season as well as at the Century Downs World Finals at Century Downs Racetrack and Casino last August.
“He’s won one now so it’s a big target for him, for sure,” said Bensmiller in regards to Molle having a target on his back going into the Calgary Stampede as defending champion. “Everybody has a target every year. It’s on him now, I guess, but we’re excited to go after him.”
