The King won his sixth championship with a little luck of the draw. However, Kelly “the King” Sutherland will tell you there is a lot of pre-work to get to the draw.
Sutherland drew the number one barrel and was able to grab the rail and stay inside around the muddy 5/8-of-a-mile of track to win the Wermac Electric Dash for Cash final at the Guy Weadick Chuckwagon Races Monday in High River.
“You have to get to the final that’s all you can ask for and if you get lady luck like I did and draw the one barrel, that’s all the much better,” Sutherland said. “When you are running with those guys, coming out of number one is going to win 95 per cent of the time.”
Sutherland won the race in a time of 1:18.59, the fastest of the night.
It wasn’t easy though. Sutherland was challenged heading to the finish line by a hard-charging Evan Salmond.
“I was sitting out in front and I gave (him) a bit of a breather and all of a sudden he (Salmond) just came a rockin’,” Sutherland said. “We hung side-by-side for the last 200 yards or so and I figured my horses might not have enough wind in them because they haven’t been run much.”
Salmond said he made an error coming out of the infield and onto the track in the final.
“I made a mistake when I didn’t pull in behind him (Sutherland) and I went outside,” Salmond said. “He had a shorter run than I did.”
The four finalists finished in the exact same order as their barrel numbers.
Salmond was second out of barrel No. 2, just 24/100ths of a second behind Sutherland at 1:18.83. Last year’s High River champion Jerry Bremner, was third at 1:19.67 and Rick Fraser was fourth at 1:20.09. Fraser had the lowest aggregate time of the 36 drivers over the first four nights of races, but lady lucky didn’t smile upon him as he drew the four barrel.
High River’s Jason Glass missed qualifying for the Dash for Cash finishing sixth overall after four nights of racing.
He is tops of the World Professional Chuckwagon Association standings.
“We had a good High River,” Glass said. “I’m still trying to figure out how to match up my horses, we still had some troubles at the start, but the last two nights they did everything right.”
Okotoks’ Mark Sutherland finished 17th overall at the High River races.
“Yes, I am disappointed,” Mark said. “I expected to make the finals and I didn’t.”
The Okotoks driver was poised to make the finals as he was sitting in fifth-place overall after three days, but the skies opened up just prior to his race on Saturday night, and he turned in a sluggish 31st place, which dropped him to 17th in the aggregate.
High River’s Jordie Fike had his best showing of the season at his hometown races by finishing 15th in the aggregate.
“I just stopped taking penalties,” Fike said. “I have the horsepower (to compete).”
This was the first time in several years there was a dash final in High River.
“I think it adds a lot,” Kelly Sutherland said. “We have to deliver to our partisan fans.”
He added the dash ensures the four best drivers over the week will likely use their best outfits, making for a thrilling race for the fans. Sutherland won the Dash for Cash on the same outfit he has won the last two Calgary Stampedes. He took home $6,000 for winning the dash.
The final day of races was supposed to run Sunday, however, it was pushed to Monday night due to Saturday’s downpour causing a muddy track.
Sutherland said the race organizers did a terrific job of making a safe track for Monday’s races.
The WPCA drivers are heading into “Chuckwagon Christmas” with the two biggest events running back to back.
The Ponoka Stampede is June 27-July 2, followed by the Calgary Stampede Rangeland Derby on July 6-15.
