The day dawned clear and sunny following a short but intense rain storm that saw a few gardens suffer from hail damage. That little storm made for slightly muddy conditions around the chuckwagon camps on the Bonnyville race track grounds. A slight breeze helped tremendously to dry the ground as the day progressed and by show time the track was ready to go.
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| Cora Croteau of the Young Guns |
The show opened first with the thrilling spectacle of two guys on motorcycles making spectacular leaps from ramp to ramp in front of the grandstand. Many of their jumps were as high as the top row that's at least 40 feet in the air. That's as tall as a four story building! Next up were the Young Guns trick riders with performers on horseback ranging from 7 to about 10. These kids were fantastic and brought great cheers from the capacity crowd. Finally the Ghost Riders equestrian team took to the arena and performed their intricate patterns and again wowed the crowd with their colorful costumes and precision riding.
A celebrity with local connections joined us for the singing of our national anthem as Clayton Bellamy of The Clayton Bellamy Band and the Road Hammers opened the event with O' Canada.
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| Chanse Vigen |
As the first wagons rolled in for heat one the crowd came alive and welcomed the drivers with thunderous applause setting the trend for the evening. The father son duo of Chanse and Mike Vigen along with rookie driver Dave Galloway and experienced hand Darcy Flad were the first four wagons up. After a minute, 19 and 20/100ths of a second Chanse bested the rest including his father with what would turn out to be the fast time of the night of all the 36 wagons.
As the races progressed times seemed to be running a bit long but that was likely due to the damp ground from the previous evenings storm. The times were all fairly consistent though with no one running much past 1:22 except for a few that had troubles with barrels and a few penalties.
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| Rae Croteau Jr. |
Our local wagon masters - Doug Irvine and Rae Croteau Jr. picked up second place in each of their respective races. Doug, driving the B & R Eckel's Transport wagon had a winning time of 1:21:03 in the 2nd heat but was assessed a one second penalty for starting ahead of the horn. Croteau driving the Tomco Group of Companies outfit was running in a later race - heat # 6 and posted a time of 1:23:47 to take second place and gather 9 points. His slower time as well as that of the other racers in his heat were likely attributed to the heavier track.
For a complete summary of all the results, visit the WPCA official web site at
http://www.halfmileofhell.com/results_display.aspx?seasonID=37 you'll find each heat's results and the aggregate scores of each wagon. You can also tune in to hear all the info each evening on 99.7 the Wolf with Billy Melville and the broadcast crew. Or, you can be in the stands to catch it live.
Don't forget, the gates open at 5 p.m. tonight and tomorrow and at Noon on Sunday. The pre-show starts at 6 and racing starts at 7 p.m. with a pre-show at 1 p.m. on Sunday and racing at 2 p.m.
And don't forget to wear green on Friday to support 4H and the pancake breakfast at Brosseau's Dept Store Saturday morning and at Sobey's on Sunday.
See you at the Chucks. Dave
