The three Foothills area chuckwagon drivers are all emphasizing running penalty free for the remainder of the Calgary Stampede.
However two of them, Okotoks’ Mark Sutherland and Jordie Fike of Blackie, have to be clean with speed to move up the standings to make the elite eight who qualify for Semifinal Saturday on July 13.
Sutherland was sitting 28th in the aggregate after three days of racing on July 8 and Fike is 22nd after both taking penalties.
Meanwhile, Jason Glass has been clean and sits in sixth place.
“Everybody wants to run penalty-free — you can run 10th, but if you’re penalty free your close,” Glass said after Sunday’s races. “You don’t necessarily have to be first. It’s a chess game. It’s trying to be consistent and be there when it counts.”
He nearly took a penalty on Sunday night for a false-start as he had to pull back on the reins prior to the horn blowing.
“I was just trying to deal with my horses at that moment and get a controlled start,” Glass said. “I was really awkward position-wise, and when the horn blew, it was hard to drive out of a crooked position.
“They worked and I somehow got them around the barrels.”
Glass finished at 1:15.02, good for 14th on the night among the 36 drivers. His previous runs of 1:20.44 (13th) and 1:17.96 (5th) on Friday and Saturday, respectively, give him an aggregate of 3:53.42. Leader Logan Gorst sits at 3:51.69.
The early days at the Stampede had some surprises. There are just two members from the World Professional Chuckwagon Association’s top eight in the Calgary Stampede top eight, Gorst and Luke Tournier.
“It’s interesting, but I kind of expected it this year,” Glass said. “There are a lot of different drivers in our association that have been in the top 10 this year – Jordie Fike, you name it.
“I am having a tough time this season to make the top 10. Then you throw in the other association (Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association), they have some guys who have some power too. It’s great.”
Sutherland is going to have move quickly.
He opened the Stampede with a five-second ‘out of lane’ penalty on Friday, to finish 33rd in the aggregate.
“There was bad weather and I hit a hole (just at the top turn of two barrel) and I lost a bit of focus and came outside of my chalk-lines,” Sutherland said. “It’s an unfortunate error, it’s five seconds I have to make up.”
Sutherland has won the Safe Driver Award at Calgary three times, which no other driver has done.
He says he still has a chance to crack the top eight for the second-straight year.
“If I keep running fast, you have eight days to make the semis, it’s a marathon,” he said.
Sutherland, who is coming off a Ponoka Stampede championship, can make up time tonight as he has the no. 1 barrel.
Fike also started his Stampede off with a penalty, through no fault of his own.
He finished 27th in the aggregate after taking a two-second penalty when one of his outriders failed to negotiate his way around a barrel on Friday.
“That’s a tough one to take, but it’s part of the sport,” Fike said. “It kind of takes the wind out of your sails, but I still have a lot of nights left… I jumped up the standings Saturday and then again tonight. Hopefully we can keep it going. I have to make hay for the next five nights… but I need a bit of luck as well.”
Fike has the all-important one-barrel tonight.
Sutherland and Fike aren’t the only ones fighting penalties. Kurt Bensmiller, who has won four of the five past Stampedes, toppled both barrels on Saturday for 10 seconds in penalties. He sits 31st in the aggregate after Sunday’s races.
The top eight in the aggregate after the July 12 races qualify for the two-semifinal heats on July 13.
The top four fastest times from those two semis, will run for $100,000 in the final Sunday.
For more information go to calgarystampede.com
From the barns: Members of the Calgary Stampeders were touring Mark Sutherland’s barns on Sunday, including Holy Trinity Academy alumnus Charlie Power — who said there was no way he would risk losing his 2018 Grey Cup ring by wearing it to the Stampede… Jason Glass will be in the wagon on July 10, but his heart will be in Nanton. The Bulls and Barrels fundraiser for John Glover, a former bull rider who grew up in High River and lived with Glass for five years, is being held at the Nanton Ag Grounds at 4 p.m. Glover is battling pancreatic cancer… Jordie Fike is looking up to his little brother Chad in the early going of the Stampede. Chad is sitting second in the aggregate just behind Gorst after three days of racing.
