Driver Chanse Vigen is seen during the home stretch of the Dash for Cash heat Sunday afternoon at the Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede Grandstand during the WPCA Pro Tour. Vigen, and his team, won the $10,000 heat for the second consecutive year.--NEWS PHOTOS BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
For the second consecutive year Chanse Vigen and his chuckwagon team walked away $10,000 richer following Sunday afternoon’s champions heat at the World Professional Chuckwagon Association’s Pro Tour stop at the Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede.
The “Dash for Cash” heat featured Kurt Bensmiller riding in lane two, Rae Croteau Jr. in lane three and Vigen in lane one.
Vigen, along with outriders Rory Gervais and Trey MacGillivray, managed to nose out Bensmiller by just :00:47 seconds in a photo-finish result after putting together a dominant stretch run following the fourth and final turn.
“They were running them down and I went to go around him and Kurt Bensmiller was coming up the rail, so I was like, well if we don’t have enough run, I’m going to look pretty stupid, because Kurt’s going to get a hole now,” explains Vigen. “So I mean they were just catching up and catching up with every stride.”
The official times are clocked with Vigen’s team running 1:01:82, while Bensmiller’s team ran a 1:02:29. Rae Croteau Jr.’s horse team was antsy before the horn, leading to a second start, and would run the race in 1:06:82, including a 5-second penalty.
“You never know how everybody’s going to respond after a false start, sometimes horses are sharper when you go back the second time,” explains Vigen.
The fastest run of the afternoon came in the Heat 11 as Jamie Laboucane and his team ran just over one minute with a time of 1:00:29 coming from lane two.
The WPCA Pro Tour will next travel to the Wainwright Stampede this weekend before heading to the Ponoka Stampede at the end of the month and then Calgary’s world famous Rangeland Derby during the Stampede that kicks off July 4.
“It’s a good sign going into the show and heading into that heart of the season that the horses are running good and feeling good, we’re peaking at the right time, I feel,” said Vigen.
