After two gloriously sunny days with a packed grandstand and enough chuckwagon drama to keep even the most laidback fan on the edge of his seat, almost torrential rains on Saturday and Sunday brought the races to a halt, forcing the cancellation of the last half of Bonnyville’s fourth annual World Professional Chuckwagon Races.
After Saturday’s races were cancelled, there were hopes they could be rescheduled for Monday, following Sunday’s matinee performance, but the rain kept up, making the track unsafe and forcing Sunday’s event to be cancelled as well.
Early Sunday, Tina Michaud, chair of the Bonnyville Chuckwagon Committee, announced, “We had to make the decision this morning, and we’re not running. The show is officially over.”
She added, “For our Thursday and Friday, we had phenomenal crowds, and the racing was absolutely fantastic. And then the rains came and for the safety of the horses, there just wasn’t any way we were going to let those horses on the track, and between the committee, the drivers, and the executives of the World Professional Chuckwagon Association (WPCA), we came to the consensus that the safety of the horses comes first and the track just wasn’t safe enough.”
Rae Croteau Jr., a local chuckwagon driver, explained further, saying this much rain “creates problems on the track, either making it slippery, or making holes that could cause the horse to break a leg or fall down. We don’t want any poor publicity for the sport. We want it to be as safe as possible and not hurt any horses, or hurt any people.”
“We had a little bit of bad luck,” he added. “They did everything in their power to be able to carry through with the show, but it just accumulated too much moisture.”
Grant Profit, who was named Bonnyville’s champion with a time of 2:32.65, said, “It’s too bad it got rained out, the weather didn’t co-operate the last two days, and I know that committee puts an awful lot of work into the grounds and preparing for the weekend.”
Doug Irvine, another chuckwagon driver from the area, was particularly disappointed after the cancellations, saying, “I’m just mad that we didn’t get to run the final two days of the show. I enjoy coming home and running in front of my friends and family and my hometown sponsor, so it was just disappointing we didn’t get to run.”
Standings
According to Michaud, instead of discounting the first two days of races, the committee decided to make the tournament a two-day aggregate rather than four as was originally intended.
After the second day of competition, Grant Profit was in first place with a time of 2:32.65, making him Bonnyville’s new chuckwagon champion, along with outriders Chance Flad and Chad Fike. They beat out runner-up Luke Tournier by 16 one-hundredths of a second to take the title. Tournier’s time was 2:32.81. Kelly Sutherland came third with 2:33.22.
The Bonnyville track record was beaten twice in the two days of competition, with Rick Fraser setting the bar high on opening night with a time of 1:16.11. Mark Vigen broke Fraser’s record on day two by 90 one-hundredths of a second, with a record time of 1:15.21
After Bonnyville’s chuckwagon finals, Grant Profit leads the world standings with 939.5 points, Kelly Sutherland is in second with 933, and Troy Dorchester holds third place with 884.5.
Profit said he was “without a doubt” impressed by the final standings.
“We had two good days of running there,” he said. “We ended up good with the points and it’s just too bad we couldn’t have run all four nights.”
“We were off the four barrel the first night and we had a decent run,” he explained. “Then we went to the one barrel, and that’s the barrel you have to make use of when you get it. The horses really worked in the end. We were quite happy with the first two nights.”
Local drivers Croteau and Irvine came in 17th and 20th in the Bonnyville aggregate, with times of 2:35.12 and 2:35.69, respectively. In world standings, this leaves Irvine in 12th place with 738 points, and Croteau in 20th with 638.5.
“I’m having a decent year,” Irvine said. “I didn’t have a real good show here. I got hung out both nights. I just got to run my barrel three and four, so I didn’t get a chance at the one and two, so it wasn’t a really good show for me, but we’re still having a pretty good year.”
Croteau said, “For the most part, it wasn’t so bad. The second night wasn’t as good as I thought it should have been. It’s been up and down throughout the year, but it’s just part of the rebuilding stage that we’re in. I don’t know, you’ve got to just keep going and keep battling and don’t give up.”
Despite the rain and the final standings, Croteau still maintains that Bonnyville is a highlight on the chuckwagon tour.
“Any time you get to come home and race in your hometown, it’s a treat,” he said. “It’s nice to see all your friends and family. We’ve been gone a month and a half, two months, steady, so to be able to come home, sleep in your own bed, and live in your own house for a week, it’s pretty nice.”
