Doug Irvine ended the final night of the Grande Prairie Stompede on top, as he captured the Traveland Dash for Cash on the first stop on the 2022 World Professional Chuckwagon Association tour across Canada. Irvine takes home $14,000.
Irvine, who participated in the dash for the first time in Grande Prairie, says it feels pretty good to kick the season off with a big win.
“The horses were working and it feels really good to see all that hard work and preparation pay off. It’s kind of like poker; you’ve got a chair and all you have to do is play the right hand and you’ll win.”
In a photo finish, Irvine topped Kirk Sutherland by just 5 milliseconds.
“I thought if I keep him headed ’til the head of the lane there that I’d come out on top,” Irvine adds. “It gets a little heavier going into the infield. I was just trying to keep him pinned down there as long as I could. Once we hit that final stretch, I felt I was going to pull it out.”
Irvine says he always looks forward to coming to the event in Grande Prairie, noting it’s one of the stops on the EPCA tour that he really enjoys.
“The support from the fans and sponsors here is amazing. It’s one of the big ones that you circle on your calendar to come to. You look forward to training for it and just being a part of it. It doesn’t always work out in terms of results, but this year it did,” he laughs.
Irvine says that while the victory is nice, he’s already looking ahead to the next event on the schedule, which features a stop in his hometown of Bonnyville.
“We’ve got lots of horses so we’re just going to keep working. If one gets sore, you’ve got another that you can put in. Bonnyville will be really busy. It was nice and quiet here.”
The 45th edition of the Grande Prairie Stompede ran from May 25th until May 29th at Evergreen Park.