Photo By Shellie Scott – shelliescottphotography.smugmug.com
The professional chuckwagon season kicked off on Wednesday night with the 43rd running of the Grande Prairie Stompede Championship in Grande Prairie, Alberta. Doug Irvine came into this year’s event as both the defending Grande Prairie champion, and Layne MacGillivray starts the season as the defending World Champion Chuckwagon Driver.
Weather conditions were cool 18°C under partly cloudy skies with some afternoon rains that made racetrack conditions a little off, but some good races were seen by the Grande Prairie chuckwagon fans on opening night of the professional chuckwagon season nonetheless. When the night wrapped up it was two-time Grande Prairie Champion Obrey Motowylo who ended up with the top time of the night with a penalty free run of 1:17.47.
Coming off barrel number 1 in heat number 11, Motowylo, driving the Dynamic Energy Group Inc. outfit placed first overall for the day by 1.01 seconds over Rae Croteau who placed 2nd overall for the night. Evan Salmond and Jason Glass placed third and fourth respectively, with Kurt Bensmiller rounding out the top 5 for the night. The top five drivers on the night are all former Grande Prairie Stompede Champions.
The top wagon in the aggregate after Saturday’s run will receive the Ralph Vigen Memorial Award and the use of a new GMC Truck for one year compliments of Summit Fleet and the Grande Prairie Stompede. The top 4 drivers in the aggregate after Saturday night will go into the championship final heat on Sunday where the winner will receive a big winner’s cheque and the Grande Prairie Stompede Championship.
Day two of the Grande Prairie Stompede can be heard live Thursday night, June 1, 2023 on Real Country 910 starting at 7:00pm Mountain Time. As well, fans can watch the races live on the watch.wpca.com streaming platform.
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Day 1 Results |
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|
Rank |
Driver |
Sponsor |
Total Time |
|
1 |
Obrey Motowylo |
Dynamic Energy Group Inc. |
1:17.47 |
|
2 |
Rae Croteau Jr. |
Cinch Oilfield Hauling Ltd. |
1:18.48 |
|
3 |
Evan Salmond |
De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Ltd. |
1:19.16 |
|
4 |
Jason Glass |
Birchcliff Energy Ltd. |
1:19.18 |
|
5 |
Kurt Bensmiller |
Half a Dime Contracting |
1:19.53 |
|
6 |
Chad Fike |
Ken Sargent GMC Buick Ltd. |
1:19.78 |
|
7 |
Tuff Dreger |
Compass Access Solutions Ltd. |
1:19.83 |
|
8 |
Dean Dreger |
Northern Mat & Bridge |
1:20.21 |
|
9 |
D.J. King |
Swamp Donkey Oilfield Services Inc. |
1:20.34 |
|
10 |
Vern Nolin |
Triple Threat Diesel |
1:20.40 |
|
11 |
Cruise Bensmiller |
Prairie Iron Rentals |
1:20.55 |
|
12 |
Jordie Fike |
Full Force Ventures Ltd. |
1:20.69 |
|
13 |
Logan Gorst |
Northstar Hydrovac |
1:20.80 |
|
14 |
Chance Bensmiller |
Pinnacle Picker Services Ltd. |
1:21.04 |
|
15 |
Jamie Laboucane |
Wild Rose |
1:21.13 |
|
16 |
Doug Irvine |
Swab Pro (2018) Ltd. |
1:21.22 |
|
17 |
Kris Molle |
Farm Boys Oilfield Services Inc. |
1:21.31 |
|
18 |
Kirk Sutherland |
Jim Hansen’s Gateway Ford Lincoln Sales |
1:21.47 |
|
19 |
Ross Knight |
The Outrider Posse |
1:21.66 |
|
19 |
Derek Aebly |
Friends of Aebly Racing |
1:21.66 |
|
21 |
Dustin Gorst |
Grande Prairie Airport |
1:21.84 |
|
22 |
Layne Flad |
Keddie’s Tack and Western Wear |
1:22.08 |
|
23 |
Chanse Vigen |
Sundown Oilfield Services Ltd. |
1:22.26 |
|
24 |
Darcy Flad |
Sniper Servies |
1:22.70 |
|
25 |
Kelly Morin |
Morin’Ever |
1:23.05 |
|
26 |
Brad McMann |
CIMS Corp |
1:23.42 |
|
27 |
Dayton Sutherland |
Manitoulan Transport; delivering a world of opportunities |
1:23.46 |
|
28 |
Josh Hrynyk |
Triple B Crane Ltd. |
1:23.52 |
|
29 |
Mark Sutherland |
Nordic Energy Canada Corp. |
1:23.57 |
|
30 |
Mitch Sutherland |
CDN Controls Ltd. |
1:23.88 |
|
31 |
Codey McCurrach |
Friends of McCurracing |
1:23.95 |
|
32 |
Roger Moore |
Envolve Energy Services Corp. |
1:24.19 |
|
33 |
Troy Dorchester |
PureChem Services |
1:24.77 |
|
34 |
Chance Thomson |
Hills Vac & Steam Services Ltd. |
1:25.06 |
|
35 |
Troy Flad |
Mr. Fireplace |
1:25.16 |
|
36 |
Jamie Tom |
Prime Towing & Recovery |
1:25.28 |
|
37 |
Chance Flad |
Control Tech |
1:25.67 |
|
38 |
Evan Magee |
FluidPRO Oilfield Services Ltd. |
1:26.35 |
|
39 |
Preston Faithful |
M&H End Dump Services Ltd. |
1:26.36 |
|
40 |
Todd McCracken |
CLHbid.com |
1:28.10 |
|
41 |
Cody Ridsdale |
Fraction Energy Services |
1:28.45 |
|
42 |
Layne MacGillivray |
Cascade Energy Services |
1:32.04 |
|
43 |
Wade Salmond |
Pidherney’s |
1:32.25 |
|
44 |
Gage Flad |
Invest Grande Prairie |
1:34.99 |
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