By Laurence Heinen
Chuckwagon racing fans have waited long enough.
The Grande Prairie Stompede, which runs from Wednesday to Sunday, will feature 44 drivers and their eager horses competing nightly at Evergreen Park to see which four outfits will earn the right to compete in the championship final heat.
Last year, Jamie Laboucane edged out Chad Fike at the finish line to win the World Professional Chuckwagon Association’s season-opening affair, while Chanse Vigen emerged victorious at his hometown show in 2023.
As for who will replicate the out-of-the gate success that Laboucane and Vigen experienced at the last two Stompedes, that remains to be seen.
But one thing is for certain – racing fans will be eagerly watching on in Grande Prairie to find out which reinsmen will jump out to an early lead atop the World Standings leading into the Bonnyville Chuckwagon Championship, which is the second stop on the WPCA Pro Tour that runs from June 5-8.
Last season, Vigen amassed a total of 1449.5 points over the four-month season to win his second straight World Title. While he narrowly edged out Laboucane to top the driver standings in 2023, Vigen finished with a comfortable 72-point lead ahead of Jason Glass last year.
Although he’s heading into the 2025 campaign as the two-time defending World Champion, Vigen isn’t taking anything for granted. The 41-year-old reinsman, who now calls Calgary home, said that he still has lots to learn when it comes to putting up consistent results.
“Of course, you never stop learning,” said Vigen, who won four show titles in 2024 at the Medicine Hat Stampede, the Battle of the Foothills, the Strathmore Stampede and the Battle of the Rockies. “You’ll learn until the day you retire. I’ve gathered that from people like Kelly Sutherland and Rick Fraser that had really decorated careers and lengthy careers and they never stopped learning until they were out because horses have a way of tricking you.”
What Vigen means is that just because a driver might think that he has the necessary horsepower to capture a show title, it doesn’t always pan out that way. After winning both the Grande Prairie Stompede and the Ponoka Stampede in 2023, he wasn’t able to defend his titles at those shows last year.
“It’s a very complicated game we’re playing,” Vigen said. “It looks very easy when you’re watching it on television or watching it live, but there’s a lot of moving parts. You’ll never get it figured out. There’s no formula, so as far as the learning curve, it never ends.”
Fellow 1984-born driver D.J. King agreed with Vigen that continually learning how to get better is the best way to achieve success as a driver.
“You can always learn,” said King, who will turn 41 on June 27 on the second day of the Ponoka Stampede, which runs from June 26 to July 1. “You’re like a sponge. No matter what it is, you’ve always got to listen and take advice. No matter how old you are, you’ve been there, done that for sure. You can still open your ears and learn something every day.”
Hailing from the chuckwagon mecca of Meadow Lake, Sask., King often gets advice from his hometown pals Logan and Dustin Gorst.
“I work with the Gorst boys quite a bit,” said King, who will be one of 12 permit drivers in Grande Prairie hoping to earn one of eight spots to advance to compete in Bonnyville the next week. “They’re close to home and right there, so I work with them a lot.”
Other shows on the WPCA Pro Tour this season are the Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede (June 12-15), the Wainwright Stampede (June 20-22), the Battle of the Foothills in High River (July 24-27), the Strathmore Stampede (Aug. 1-4), the Battle of the North in Dawson Creek, B.C., (Aug. 6-10) and the WPCA World Finals in Rocky Mountain House (Aug. 13-17).
The WPCA Pro Tour will take a mid-season break for the Calgary Stampede Rangeland Derby, which runs over 10 nights from July 4-13. Drivers who didn’t qualify to compete at the Rangeland Derby will still have a chance to race at the Teepee Creek Stampede from July 11-13.
After winning both the championship dashes at the Rangeland Derby and the WPCA World Finals last year, Glass was quick to thank his main sponsor Birchcliff Energy and all the other companies that help all the drivers get down the road from event-to-event to put on a show for the fans.
“We put a lot of effort and work and money into entertaining people that want to sit in the seats to watch chuckwagon racing,” Glass said. “So it’s fantastic and the support that we have each and every year is amazing. It means a lot.
“It’s not cheap to run a chuckwagon outfit. It’s money very well spent on all the drivers. It’s not like any of us get rich off of the sport. We put it back into what we do and we love it. It’s a lot of money, but it’s very well appreciated and it’s amazing that we raise the money that we do. It’s great.”
Day 1 of the Grande Prairie Stompede can be heard live on WPCA Radio on Wednesday night starting at 7 p.m. MT on 96.5 The Ranch at 96.5 FM, or streaming options are available through the WPCA website at wpca.com, iHeart Radio website/app or the Radioplayer Canada website/app. The Stompede can also be watched live on the WPCA Livestream at watch.wpca.com.
