By Laurence Heinen
A bit of a shaky start didn’t deter Jamie Laboucane from winning the Grande Prairie Stompede Championship on Sunday.
Laboucane pulled his Wild Rows Pump & Compression Ltd. outfit up against the No. 1 barrel and was ready to let loose when the claxon sounded, but his horses didn’t fully cooperate.
“Honestly, we weren’t set very good when the horn went,” admitted Laboucane to Arnie Jackson shortly after the championship dash for cash at Evergreen Park. “They kind of took off right on me. I had to drive ’em back left, but after that, they just worked like they normally do. We made a nice top after that and made a really smooth bottom.”
Laboucane guided his rig around track in a time of 1:16.08 and held off a charge from Chad Fike, who finished just 77/100ths of a second behind in second place.
“I always tell everybody, I’m not nervous about myself,” said the 37-year-old reinsman from St. Walburg, Sask. “I’m nervous about not showcasing what my horses can do and we did that today, so I’m very proud of them.”
Jason Glass finished third followed by Wade Salmond, who crossed the finish line in fourth.
“As long as I could hold Jason out, I knew I wasn’t in a rush,” said Laboucane in regards to the hard-charging Glass, who has won the Stompede title on two previous occasions. “I’ll just hold Jason out and this outfit’s got the run and they proved me right. They ran hard. They’ve, got a lot of run speed and then they could carry it, so I’m really proud of the boys.”
In addition to prevailing in the championship final, Laboucane also topped the aggregate standings with a four-day combined time of 5:14.64. For his efforts, he received the Ralph Vigen Memorial Award and a year’s use of a new GMC Truck compliments of Summit Fleet.
Laboucane commended his outriders Hayden Motowylo and Kale Lajeunesse for helping him start off the season with a bang.
“It’s pretty special,” said Motowylo, who helped Laboucane win show titles last season at the Medicine Hat Stampede and the Battle of the North in Dawson Creek, B.C. “It’s the opening one and Grande Prairie’s always a big one for us every single year. There’s a lot at stake here. To win at our first stop, especially a show as big as Grande Prairie, it’s huge. It’s exciting and it was fun, for sure. I really enjoy riding for him. He’s a great guy and has really powerful horses.”
Meanwhile, Lajeunesse made the switch to compete on the WPCA this season after years of plying his trade on the CPCA circuit.
“It was a lot of fun coming here for the first one of the year,” Lajeunesse said. “Jamie’s actually the one that called me to come over and ride over here, so it was fun to get on with him and we won the aggregate and the dash as well.”
The WPCA Pro Tour presented by GMC will now head west for the running of the Bonnyville Chuckwagon Championship starting on Thursday and running through to Sunday.
With his sons Hayden and Ethan outriding for him, Obrey Motowylo will be looking to repeat as champion in Bonnyville. Last year, Motowylo finished atop the three-day aggregate standings to qualify for the championship final heat where he beat out second-place finisher Layne MacGillivray by 85/100ths of a second for the title.
Live coverage of the Bonnyville Chuckwagon Championship can be viewed at watch.wpca.com starting Thursday night at 7 p.m. MT
Listen live on New Country 910.https://player.newcountry910.ca/
