Being pushed by some of foothills’ finest helped a chuckwagon driver grab his third North American Chuckwagon championship in six years last week.
Jerry Bremner won the championship when he turned in the second fastest time of the day on Sunday at 1:16.53 to vault from fifth place to first place in the aggregate to win the championship in High River.
Bremner’s aggregate time of 5:09.97 over the four days, June 23-26, put him one-tenth of a second ahead of second place Doug Irvine.
“I really didn’t give myself much of a chance because I was in the neighbourhood of two seconds back (going into Sunday’s race),” Bremner said, who also won the championship in 2006 and 2009. “I just wanted to go out there an be in the thick of things.”
Bremner came off the No. 1 barrel and grabbed the rail and the lead in blistering around the five-eighths of a mile track in 1:16.53.
He finished just ahead of High River’s Jason Glass and Okotoks’ Mark Sutherland who was in the same heat as Bremner for all four nights.
“Every heat is tough out here,” Bremner said. “When you hooked with guys like Jason and Mark you are going to be in the money if you stay close to them.”
Bremner helped his cause by running clean. He had no penalties over the four days.
He tipped his hat to his outriders Chad Fike and Chad Cosgrave of Blackie.
“I’m very fortunate to have Chad Cosgrave,” Bremner said. “I think he’s the best leadman out there. If you are getting off to the right start your leadman has to be in position and he does a great job every week.”
Chad’s brother, Colt, had his best showing of the year in what he calls his second home town. Colt finished third in the aggregate, at 5:10.13.
“I lived here with Jason (cousin Jason Glass) for five years and I was born here,” Colt said. “This is pretty much my second home.”
Although he was sitting in fourth going into Sunday’s run and was more than a second behind leader Doug Irvine, he felt he had a chance to win the championship.
“I knew we had the one barrel and the three guys who were ahead of me had the four barrel,” said Colt, whose father Richard set a track record in High River at 1:12.98 in 1993. “So we thought we had a pretty good shot at it. Jerry also had the one barrel and he ended up having a good run to win it.”
Colt had the third-fastest time of the day when his polka-dotted High River Autoplex and RV wagon circled the track in 1:16.76 on Sunday.
His cousin Jason Glass of High River was sixth in the aggregate.
“My horses ran well, I am just having trouble when the horn blows,” Glass said. “My outfits just aren’t starting well. They are healthy and running strong, I just have to get them starting better.”
Glass ran penalty free during the four days of racing.
He was also pleased to see his cousin do so well.
“Colt is working harder every year and paying attention to detail,” Glass said. “You have to put so much effort in this sport to get into the top 10 and Colt is doing that. It’s great to see.”
Okotoks’ Mark Sutherland finished 14th in the aggregate. He said he has the horsepower to win, but a pair of penalties held him back.
“If I don’t have those two seconds of penalties, that puts me right up near the top (after three days),” Sutherland said on Sunday. “I had a late outrider on Friday and a false start last night. I have no one to blame but myself for that.”
He said while he went for it during Sunday’s race, he was in tough coming out of barrel three.
“I turned fast and I got hung out three wide for awhile,” Sutherland said. “You have to make a pretty good turn if you are trying to steal the rail from the guy who ended up winning the show.”
Sutherland’s finished third in his heat Sunday at 1:19.45.
Jordie Fike, who moved to High River approximately a month ago, was 22nd in the overall aggregate for High River.
High River’s Brian Mayan was 34th.
The WPCA rolled into the Ponoka Stampede last night, which runs June 28-July 3.
The circuit will then take a break for the Calgary Stampede July 8-17.
