DOZEN FOR SUTHERLAND
The King has retained his crown.
On Sunday, chuckwagon legend Kelly “The King” Sutherland captured his 12th career World Chuckwagon Championship at the 2011 Richard Cosgrave Badlands Dinosaur Derby in Drumheller. The derby was the final World Professional Chuckwagon Association race for the 2011 season.
It took Sutherland all three days of the Drumheller race to secure the slim victory over second-place Troy Dorchester and third-place Grant Profit. Dorchester finished 27.5 points behind Sutherland and Profit finished 29.5 back.
“I’m elated, to say the least, to win it and it was a tough fight this year,” said Sutherland as he returned home to Grande Prairie on Monday. “The points got very close and I’m happy that things went well in Drumheller.”
Sutherland entered the Drumheller event with a tiny 5.5 lead over Profit and a 11.5 lead over Dorchester. It was a completely different situation than when he won the title last season in Edmonton, having sealed the championship on the second-to-last day of racing.
In Drumheller, the lead was small enough that one bad race could have changed everything.
“It was a three-way race … but the first night in Drumheller I ran big and I knew that I was going to have a pretty good show,” Sutherland said. “But you never know, you still have to run clean because when you’re only eight or nine points ahead of someone you have to have a perfect run.
On the race for the title being so close, he added: “There’s a lot more emotion involved because you know that at anytime in a wagon race, mistakes can be made. It just takes one second and the whole outcome changes, so the pressure is on and it’s a great feeling when you finally end up winning it.”
Throughout the season, which began with the Grande Prairie Stompede back in May, Sutherland finished with tour victories at the Ponoka Stampede, the Strathmore Heritage Days Stampede, and the Battle of the North in Dawson Creek.
He also won his 12th Calgary Stampede title this year, although there are no WPCA points awarded for that racing event.
Sutherland also finished with eight top 10 finishes and he only finished outside of the top 10 twice all season.
One of those races was the Battle of the Rockies held at Rocky Mountain House, which Sutherland regarded as the reason the race for the championship was so close this season.
“I had actually given up quite a few points in Rocky Mountain House,” said Sutherland who finished dead last at the 36th spot in the Battle of the Rockies. “For some reason the horses didn’t like to run that race track very much. I didn’t make very good runs there.”
Throughout the season Profit was a strong contender to upset Sutherland. The Cochrane native won two events this season and he had nine top 10 finishes this season. However it was the rise of Dorchester throughout the season really caught Sutherland off guard.
“The guy that really seemed to come strong at the end of the year was Troy Dorchester,” Sutherland said. “He ran really tough and straight from Dawson Creek he just kept gaining points on everybody. He never let up a bit, even in Drumheller.
“I ended up having two better runs than he did (in Drumheller) and that’s all it took.”
In addition to fending off Dorchester and Profit on Sunday, Sutherland had to deal with the sun and 27 C weather.
“When the temperature gets over 22 or 24 degrees, then dehydration becomes a problem,” Sutherland said. “With the horses, you try to get enough fluid in them so they’ll don’t get too dehydrated whenever it’s hot. I think the ideal temperature is probably 22 to 24 degrees.”
By winning his 12th world championship and his 12th Calgary Stampede this season, Sutherland has captured both titles in the same season for the sixth time.
- IVAN DANIELEWICZ Herald-Tribune staff
