After all day rains on Wednesday postponed the start of the Wild West WPCA World Chuckwagon Finals in Ponoka, the chuckwagon races resumed for the opening day on Aug. 29.
The temperature was a warm 19°C and racetrack conditions had drastically improved, and night one is in the books and was a tremendous success. The postponement will mean the show will be carried over to Monday afternoon at 2 p.m.
For the 36 drivers who are racing for the Wild West WPCA World Chuckwagon Finals Aggregate Championship, it was Jamie Laboucane who was the fast man with a penalty free run of 1:16.79.
In heat number 9 from barrel number 4, Laboucane, driving the Wild Rows Pump and Compression Ltd. outfit, put him just one one-hundredths of a second faster than Layne Flad.
Rae Croteau Jr., Jason Glass, and Chance Bensmiller rounded out the top five on opening night.
The driver posting the best four-day aggregate time after Monday’s run will be declared the champion of the Wild West WPCA World Chuckwagon Finals race meet.
In the main event, Laboucane was also tops among the elite 12 drivers who qualified for the Century Downs Racetrack and Casino “WINNERS’ ZONE” series playoff round and earned 12 playoff points for his outstanding run.
Rae Croteau Jr. was right behind in second place, with Jason Glass, Chanse Vigen, and Luke Tournier rounding out the top five.
The four drivers in the playoff points standings after Saturday night will compete in the championship final heat where they will be racing for $50,000 cash and the prestige of being recognized as the Century Downs Racetrack and Casino “WINNERS’ ZONE” Series Champion.
In the race for the World Chuckwagon Championship, Vigen in search of second consecutive World Chuckwagon Championship, came into the final show of the season with an 80.5 point lead over Rae Croteau Jr.
After the completion of the first night of racing, Vigen’s lead is now 76.5 points over Croteau.
The World Champion Chuckwagon driver will be declared Sunday night as the driver who accumulated the most number of points over the course of the season.
The Wild West WPCA World Chuckwagon Finals can also be watched live on the WPCA Livestream at watch.wpca.com.
