The 2024 Wild West WPCA World Chuckwagon Finals, held in Ponoka from Aug. 29 to Sept. 2, saw Jason Glass capture the season-ending Century Downs “Winners’ Zone” Series as well as earning the aggregate championship title.
Originally set for Aug. 28 to Sept. 1, the racing got underway a day later due to a rain delay.
READ MORE: Jamie Laboucane tops all on first night of the WPCA World Chuckwagon finals
On Monday, Sept. 2, Glass, Laboucane, Chanse Vigen and Chad Fike competed in the Winners' Zone Series championship final heat, racing for $50,000.
Glass, the 2024 Calgary Stampede Cowboys Rangeland Derby Champion, along with outriders Dayton Sutherland and Tyson Whitehead, came out on top when the wagons crossed the finish line.
Glass took the series, and the cash, with a track record run on the Ponoka racetrack of 1:12.14 from barrel position number one.
Laboucane placed second from barrel number two, just three tenths of a second behind the champion Glass.
Fike was third from barrel position number three, while Vigen, the newest world champion chuckwagon driver, placed fourth from barrel position number four in an exciting penalty- free race to end the 2024 season.
There was $40,000 in cash up for the 32 drivers in the first eight heats of the afternoon who did not qualify for the Century Downs “Winners’ Zone” Series Championship Final.
Heat winners included Doug Irvine in heat number one, Mitch Sutherland in heat number two, Dustin Gorst in heat number three, Darcy Flad in heat number four, Dayton Sutherland in heat number five, Ross Knight in Heat number six, Preston Faithful in heat number seven and Luke Tournier in heat number eight.
Glass’s track record run was five one-hundredths of a second faster than Luke Tournier’s 1:12.19 that was set during the Ponoka Stampede in late June of 2014. He was followed closely by Laboucane, with Flad, Sutherland and Fike posting the five fastest times on the last day of racing.
The afternoon also marked the final run of the illustrious career of legendary driver Kirk Sutherland, who announced his retirement from racing earlier this year after 48 years.
Glass made a clean sweep of the Wild West WPCA World Chuckwagon Finals, also winning the aggregate championship after posting the best aggregate time of 4:57.56 over the first four days of the racing.
Two world champions were declared Saturday night as Vigen, for the second consecutive year, won the World Chuckwagon Championship by 72 points over Glass. Rae Croteau Jr. placed third overall, with Laboucane in fourth and Fike placing fifth overall.
