Grande Prairie’s Kelly Sutherland came 11-hundredths of a second away for repeating his 1979 Stompede championship. In Sunday night’s World Professional Chuckwagon Association $50,000 Dash for Cash, he came second to Kurt Bensmiller. While it took some time for the result to be made official, the defending world champion says he knew he had it in the bag.
“I knew I crossed the line before Kelly, but I didn’t know. You’ve got to make sure that the judges… everything’s clean and everybody’s okay, right? I’m only watching my leaders, not my outriders, I didn’t know until they finally come and got me.”
Bensmiller was flanked by outriders Wayne Wright and Shawn Calf Robe. It’s his first ever win in Grande Prairie. Troy Dorchester was the WPCA aggregate winner, but knocked over a barrel and ended up fourth in the heat.
There were a lot of sleepless nights and meals skipped meals just to get Derek Aebley into the Western Chuckwagon Association, but he’s says it’s all been worth it. The Grande Prairie driver won the $15,000 Dash for Cash at the Stompede Sunday night.
“We didn’t get the start we wanted; we sat there a little long but we just had to be clean. I was going to pull out on the third corner and try to go wide and I thought, naw, let’s just see what happens. Dean [Dreger] drifted a little bit on the third corner and I seen a hole and took it.”
Aebley ended up just .04 seconds ahead of Dean Dreger, son-in-law Kelly Sutherland. Sean DeBolt took the WCA aggregate while the $1,500 All Pro event went to Keith Wood.