By Laurence Heinen
Lightning Luke won the dash in a flash.
By prevailing in the final heat on Sunday, Lightning Luke Tournier captured his third Bonnyville Chuckwagon Championship aboard his SITE Resource Group outfit. He also won the show in back-to-back years in 2015 and 2016.
“Something must work when we get here, I guess,” said the humble 61-year-old reinsman from Duck Lake, Sask. “The horses ran well. We stayed penalty free and got good positioning on the track.”
Tournier’s penalty-free clocking of 1:18.07 in the championship dash in Bonnyville was 1.39 seconds better than second-place finisher Rae Croteau Jr.
The veteran driver actually thought he finished in second spot behind Layne MacGillivray, who crossed the finish line first but would up placing fourth due to knocking over a barrel.
“I thought I lost the race and then I ran through the infield and I saw his barrel down and I thought ‘Oh, okay, we just won’,” said Tournier, who took home the George Normand Memorial Buckle for his efforts.
His winning outfit on Sunday afternoon included right leader Genius, left leader Colleen, right wheeler Kiss and left wheeler Moon.
“They’re starting to gel,” said Tournier in regards to his barn of horses. “There still might be some changes here. They’re good horses, but sometimes you move stuff around. We’ve got a few good horses standing in the barn that could have been on there. We try to tweak it to see what’s the very best. We’re still kind of playing with that.”
Tournier also gave credit to outriders Quaid Tournier, who rode Gem, and Rory Gervais, who was on Captain.
“Quaid always holds my leaders and does a great job and Rory’s a good outrider,” he said. “They both stayed penalty free and I don’t even bother looking back for them. I just do my thing and I know they’ll be there.”
Thanks to his strong showing in Bonnyville, Tournier moved into sixth spot in the World Professional Chuckwagon Association driver standings with 348.5 points, which is just 44 points behind current leader Jamie Laboucane.
Following a week off, the WPCA Pro Tour will continue with the running of the Medicine Hat Stampede from June 20 to 23. As the top permit driver on tour, Tournier has a great shot to earn one of four spots to qualify to compete at the Ponoka Stampede from June 26 to July 1.
“I’d like to try to win Ponoka,” said Tournier, who competed on the Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association circuit the past three seasons before deciding to return to the WPCA this year. “To be honest, you like to try to win every show you go to.”
Last season, Tournier won the North American Chuckwagon Association championship in Lloydminster as well as the Poundmaker Cree Nation show title.
“It was a good year,” he said. “We won the NACC and we won some dashes during the year and really got the horses working good because we’ve got lots of new horses. I’d sold most of them after 2019 and then we kind of rebuilt, so it’s been a process and it’s starting to pay off now.”
While he won’t compete at the Calgary Stampede’s Cowboys Rangeland Derby, he’ll return to Lloydminster to defend his title at the North American Chuckwagon Championship from July 4 to 14.
“I’d like to repeat at the NACC,” added Tournier, who also finished atop the aggregate standings at the 2023 CPCA Finals in Lloydminster before finishing second behind Danny Ringuette in the championship dash. “I’d like to win that championship again and maybe try and get the (WPCA Pro Tour) World Title – try to win everything. It would be nice to meet all those goals, but it would be highly unlikely to meet ’em all. You’ve got to aim high.”
Seeing the success of former CPCA star Laboucane, who made the successful switch to compete on the WPCA Pro Tour as a permit driver last season, gave Tournier motivation that he could make a triumphant return as well.
“We had been running with Jamie on the CPCA, so I knew he’d do well over here,” said Tournier, who won a WPCA Pro Tour World Title in 2016. “You’ve got to really grind it out over here, so we like that. It’s still bigger venues and it’s tougher running. I like to run with the toughest. I’ve run with these guys before, so I knew what to expect.”
