(L-R): Miss Rodeo Canada Mackenzie Skeels Presenting, Outrider Rory Armstrong, Brie Vigen, Driver Chanse Vigen, Hi Line Motorsports Ltd.’s Jesse Johnson Presenting, Ponoka Stampede Association President Jason Cline and Miss Ponoka Stampede Kaylee Shantz Presenting, Outrider Ethan Motowylo, D.J DeSutter (Photo By Billy Melville)

By Contributed by Billy Melville and Laurence Heinen

Final results

Chanse Vigen makes history in chuckwagon racing at 2023 Ponoka Stampede

Jul 4, 2023 | 10:51 AM

History was made at the 2023 Ponoka Stampede.

In a highly anticipated Hi Line Motorsports $75,000 Tommy Dorchester Championship final heat, Chanse Vigen, Evan Salmond, Layne MacGillivray and Kris Molle would run for the championship at one of chuckwagon racing’s most prestigious events on the World Professional Chuckwagon Association (WPCA) Pro Tour – the Ponoka Stampede on Sunday.

On one of the most exciting race nights of the year, Chanse Vigen, driving the Wentworth Oilfield Services Ltd. outfit, and along with outriders Rory Armstrong and Ethan Motowylo, broke a 61-year-old record en route to sweeping the 2023 Ponoka Stampede Championship.

“I just had a lot of confidence,” Vigen told Arnie Jackson. “Unbelievable week. The team is just so dialed in from start to finish. We were on a mission.”

“The crew has just been working so hard. The horses are right where they need to be. Every little thing that we’ve got to do, we’ve been doing it. We’ve been taking care of our business and it’s showing.”

OCTOBER 2-5

Central Alberta Film Festival hits the big screen

10h ago

OCTOBER 17 AT RDP

10Peaks Innovation Exchange welcomes students to the world of sustainable energy

10h ago

SEPT. 29, 10AM-3PM

Operation Food Lift exchanges flights for funds to the Red Deer Food Bank

10h ago

Vigen further explained that he had no doubt that his speedy thoroughbred horses – Red and Max on the lead team and Laser and Ted as his wheelers – could get the job done under immense pressure.

“They’re the best No. 4 barrel outfit in the world and I think they proved that,” said the 39-year-old reinsman, who also won his hometown Grande Prairie Stpmpede title to kick off the WPCA season schedule in early June. “All the credit goes to the horses and the crew. I’m just along for the ride and just very fortunate to have the team and the group of horses that we have.”

Those equine athletes included the foursome of Phoenix, Beau, Alfie and Nibbles, which he runs off of the No. 1 and 2 barrels, as well as outriding horses Standard, Coco, Code 8 and Emmett.

Vigen captured his first career Ponoka Stampede crown with a run of 1:15.05 from barrel position number four in the Championship Final Heat number nine. 2022 Calgary Stampede Champion Kris Molle was second from barrel position number three, 1.21 seconds behind the champion Chanse Vigen. Reigning World Champion Layne MacGillivray placed third from barrel position three, while Evan Salmond, who tipped a barrel, placed fourth from barrel position number one. It was an undisputed victory for Vigen who also captured the Ponoka Stampede aggregate title for having the best combined time after the first four days.

On the day, Chanse Vigen’s championship run was not only the best on the night, it was his sixth consecutive first place run in six consecutive nights, breaking the previous record of five consecutive first place runs by Dale Flett at the Calgary Stampede in 1962. Ironically, Dale Flett’s streak of first place run was ended on the final night of the 1962 Calgary Stampede by Chanse Vigen’s grandfather Ralph Vigen. Kris Molle placed second, with Layne MacGillivray, Mark Sutherland and Darcy Flad filling out the top five on the night. The Championship Final Heat produced three of the top five times on the Ponoka Stampede’s final night.

“I just love Ponoka,” Vigen exclaimed. “I love competing here. It’s a special place to compete. There’s something in the air at places like Grande Prairie, Ponoka and Calgary. I’m just so proud to be part of history and to be amongst some of the great names like Ralph Vigen, my grandfather. I’m really proud to get on the board with a show like this. I don’t know, man. It’s just a hell of a weekend.”

He particularly gave a shout out to his teammates.

“It’s a tough job,” said Vigen, speaking from first-hand experience seeing as how he was a world-class outrider for almost a decade before he took up driving in 2008. “They’re like kickers in football. They don’t get the credit when they do their job and they’re the goat when they don’t.”

“Motowylo did a hell of a job holding leaders all week and Chance Flad did a great job filling in for him (on Sunday). Rory was with me for six days on stove. They weren’t just catching any other wagon. The wagon was day money every night and that’s hard for them too, right, and they caught me every night. I know how hard that job can be especially in pressure moments like (the championship final).”

Final Results – 2023 Ponoka Stampede Championship (Supplied)

With two show titles under his belt this season, Vigen would like nothing more than to win his first-ever Rangeland Derby title, which is something his grandfather Ralph accomplished on three occasions in 1972, 1976 and 1985.

“We’ve got a ton of momentum and we’ve got a ton of good energy in the barn and everything’s clicking,” said Vigen, who won the Orville Strandquist Memorial Trophy as the Calgary Stampede’s top rookie driver in 2013. “We’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing and not get away from what got us here and what won us Ponoka and roll that into Calgary and just try to keep the ball rolling and keep our foot on the gas.”

To do that, he’ll have to fend off challenges from the likes of four-time Rangeland Derby champ Kurt Bensmiller as well as from Molle, who raced to show victories in Grande Prairie and Calgary last season as well as at the Century Downs World Finals at Century Downs Racetrack and Casino last August.

The WPCA Pro Tour will now take a break for the Calgary Stampede Rangeland Derby from July 7-16, 2023.