Billy Melville @billymelville
Day One: May 27, 2015
2015 Grande Prairie Stompede – Grande Prairie, Alta. The start of the 2015 chuckwagon season off on Wednesday night with the 38th running of the Grande Prairie Stompede. There will be a new champion this year as defending champion Tim Haroldson had to retire last season.
Weather conditions were cool under partly cloudy skies, racetrack conditions were reasonably good after some late afternoon showers, but some great races were seen by the Grande Prairie chuckwagon fans on opening night of the professional chuckwagon season nonetheless. When the night wrapped up it was former Medicine Hat Stampede Champion Evan Salmond who ended up with the top time of the night with a penalty free run of 1:19.04.
Coming off barrel number 1 in heat number 6, Salmond, driving the Debolt Contracting outfit placed first overall for the day by a whopping 63 one-hundredths of a second over reigning Calgary Stampede champion Kurt Bensmiller who placed 2nd overall for the night. Obrey Motowylo was third, Rick Fraser was fourth and Chad Harden rounded out the top five on opening night.
The Grande Prairie Stompede is also the first leg of the Sierra Cup series presented by GMC. The top wagon in the aggregate after Saturday’s run will receive the Ralph Vigen Memorial Award. The top 4 drivers in the aggregate after Saturday night will go into the championship final heat on Sunday where the winner will receive a $25,000.00 winner’s cheque, a new GMC Truck, and the Grande Prairie Stompede Championship.
Day two of the Grande Prairie Stompede can be heard live Thursday night, May 28, 2015 on Rural Radio on SiriusXM Channel 80 or on Country 99 at 99.7 FM out of Bonnyville starting at 9:30pm Eastern, 8:30pm Central, 7:30pm Mountain Time.
More Information Available At: www.halfmileofhell.com
| Day 1 Results | ||||||
| Rank | Driver | Sponsor | Total Time | |||
| 1 | Evan Salmond | Debolt Contracting | 1:19.04 | |||
| 2 | Kurt Bensmiller | Tsuu T’ina Nation | 1:19.67 | |||
| 3 | Obrey Motowylo | H & E Oilfield Services Ltd. | 1:19.93 | |||
| 4 | Rick Fraser | Direct Horizontal Drilling | 1:19.94 | |||
| 5 | Chad Harden | Image Distributors | 1:20.29 | |||
| 6/7 | Darcy Flad | Strad Energy Services | 1:20.42 | |||
| 6/7 | Layne MacGillivray | ATB Financial | 1:20.42 | |||
| 8 | Ross Knight | Initial Industries Ltd. | 1:20.66 | |||
| 9 | Kirk Sutherland | EMCO Corporation | 1:20.68 | |||
| 10 | Jerry Bremner | Birchcliff Energy Ltd. | 1:20.77 | |||
| 11 | Roger Moore | Rusway Construction Ltd. | 1:20.82 | |||
| 12 | Colt Cosgrave | Sundown Oilfield Services | 1:21.38 | |||
| 13 | Jason Glass | Red Oak Industrial Rentals | 1:21.47 | |||
| 14 | John Walters | RT Rentals | 1:21.55 | |||
| 15 | Rae Croteau Jr. | TOMCO Group of Companies | 1:21.66 | |||
| 16 | Cliff Cunningham | MDJ Oilfield Service Inc. | 1:21.79 | |||
| 17 | Doug Irvine | B & R Eckel’s Transport Ltd. | 1:21.81 | |||
| 18/19 | Chanse Vigen | Troyer Ventures | 1:21.93 | |||
| 18/19 | Kelly Sutherland | Tervita | 1:21.93 | |||
| 20 | Barry Hodgson | Roadtrek | 1:22.45 | |||
| 21 | Tyson Graham | Maximum Tank Truck Svc Ltd | 1:22.50 | |||
| 22 | Mark Sutherland | Pomeroy Lodging | 1:22.52 | |||
| 23 | Dustin Gorst | Grande Prairie Airport | 1:22.62 | |||
| 24 | Cody Ridsdale | Triple K Oilfield Services | 1:22.73 | |||
| 25 | Mike Vigen | Keddies Tack & Western Wear | 1:22.89 | |||
| 26 | Troy Flad | Sexsmith Used Farm Parts | 1:23.16 | |||
| 27 | Troy Dorchester | LaFarge Canada Ltd. | 1:23.20 | |||
| 28 | Jess Willard | Red Oak Industrial Rentals | 1:23.70 | |||
| 29 | Mitch Sutherland | Ken Sargent GMC Buick | 1:23.80 | |||
| 30 | Chad Fike | Jimbob Rentals 2000 Ltd. | 1:23.88 | |||
| 31 | Luke Tournier | Barrick Energy Inc. | 1:23.97 | |||
| 32 | Jim Knight | Vertical Building Solutions | 1:25.38 | |||
| 33 | Gary Gorst | Northstar Hydrovac Inc. | 1:26.68 | |||
| 34 | Jordie Fike | H & M Meats | 1:26.90 | |||
| 35 | Codey McCurrach | Enerplus Corporation | 1:35.36 | |||
| 36 | Logan Gorst | River Stone Golf Course | N.T | |||
