Warburg Warrior vows ‘best is yet to come’

By Laurence Heinen

Troy Flad was done with chuckwagon racing.

After finishing 36th in the 2024 World Professional Chuckwagon Association driver standings, the veteran reinsman was content with his decision to call it a career. “This spring, I didn’t want to race,” said Flad, who started driving in 1991 at the age of 16. “I was done. That was 34 years.”

His sons, Gage and Trez, had other ideas and started training their dad’s horses leading up to the Grande Prairie Stompede, which was the first show of the 2025 WPCA Pro Tour. “I went farming and the boys said, “Aren’t you going to train?,” said Flad, who once again responded no. “So, they started training, and I never drove a horse except once before we went to Grande Prairie.”

Somehow Gage and Trez convinced their dad to get back up into the wagon box for the first race on the opening night of the Stompede on May 28. Lo and behold, Flad and his Shadow Rathole Drilling Ltd. outfit won the first heat in a time of 1:16.74, which was the 12th fastest clocking of the night.

Not only did Gage persuade his dad to race again, but he also convinced him to put on new glasses. “He gave me these glasses and I didn’t know what they were,” Flad said, adding he wasn’t especially fond of the dark lenses. “I put them on and we went out. I run them guys nice and snug going into the first turn. I wanted to make sure that they knew they were in a race, even though I didn’t want to be there anymore.”

When he finally took a glance behind him, Flad was surprised he had a big lead. “I looked, and I was like, ‘Holy sh*t, there’s nobody there? Where’d they go?” said Flad, who finished 10th in the Stompede aggregate standings. “Gage posted some video, and he kept saying, that video’s growing. ‘Like, what video?’ I didn’t know these glasses were video recorded. Good thing I wasn’t swearing.”

Even though the video reached more than two million viewers on social media, Flad still wanted to quit. “Things just went wild and crazy, and then the boys wanted me to continue going, and I didn’t want it,” he said. “I tried to sell my spot. I was one of 12 permit drivers who came in. Then we went ahead, and again, I still had no pressure on me.”

After finishing 19th in the aggregate standings at the Bonnyville Chuckwagon Championships, Flad narrowly missed out on qualifying for the championship dash at the Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede. “All of a sudden we’re sitting sixth,” said Flad, which is exactly where he finished in the standings in Medicine Hat. After that, he told his sons he was back in for good. “I’m like, ‘You guys, you made me stay on the tour,’” Flad said. “We’re gunning for points now. I was just gunning for 30 points, and we got them. After that, the year just turned into fun. We had a fantastic year.”

When the dust settled, the ‘Warburg Warrior’ finished 15^th in the World standings, an amazing improvement of 21 spots from the previous year. “That was the most Billy (Melville) said that’s ever been moved,” said Flad when accepting the Herman Flad Memorial Award (named after his dad) for Most Improved Driver at the 2025 WPCA Awards Banquet last Saturday. Standing right beside him on stage at the Carriage House Inn were Gage and Trez. “They’re everything,” said the proud papa, who will also be supporting his sons’ aspirations of becoming drivers. “I mean, the boys trained hard this spring. I went farming and I couldn’t care less about racing.” It’s safe to say that isn’t the case anymore. “I was totally out and I’m absolutely 100 per cent in,” Flad said. “I guess the best is yet to come. I’ve had the most fun this year that I’ve ever had running a wagon because of these two, so we’ll be back out there.”

He added that he’s “pumped and stoked” to get in shape over the winter before training his horses in the spring to prepare for the 2026 WPCA Pro Tour. “I’m going to be 51 this winter and I have never been more motivated to come back and to compete even better,” he said. “We’re just going to go great gangbusters, and we’re going to be training hard and coming back.”

As a second-generation driver, Flad said he’s going to return to how his father originally taught him to prepare for a short, but intense racing season. “We’re just switching things up and doing it how we used to,” he said. “A lot of extra labour and work and be under them horses’ legs and giving them horses the TLC because they’re the ones that run, right? Not us. I’m just a fat old lazy driver.”

As for what will be the secret to even more success, Flad said it will depend on the team he has behind him, which will obviously include his sons. “There’s a combination of many things,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re Wayne Gretzky or if you’re Dale Earnhardt, it takes a team behind you. It takes some talent and it takes some luck. There’s 50 per cent luck. We’ve really got to buckle down and focus on it and then just hope and pray that our horses stay together.”

Whether Flad can improve upon his bounce-back year remains to be seen, but he’s going to give it his best effort.

“My goal now is if we could even move up three spots, that’s not a lot to ask, but that’s still a pretty tough bar to raise, because at the top end, it’s tough,” said Flad, who praised Chanse Vigen for winning his third straight World title. “Chanse had an exceptional year. He’s super talented and he’s got things really figured out. This kid is a genius. It’s a pleasure to get to watch him. He was a very gifted outrider and now is a wagon driver. I mean, he’s a superpower, that’s what he is.”