Chad Fike quick off the mark again in Rangeland Derby, credits 'beautiful' outfit of horses

Yahoo

19 hours ago

It was déjà vu all over again for Chad Fike.
Just like at last year's Calgary Stampede, Fike posted the fastest time on the opening night of the Rangeland Derby presented by Play Alberta.
'I don't know what it is about the first night here for us, but we've had good luck,' said Fike, who won the top day-money prize of $6,000 aboard his Steelhaus Tryton wagon. 'I think that's our third day money on the first night here, so I'm pretty happy.'
Racing in Heat 8 off barrel No. 3, Fike knew he had to have a strong showing after watching Chanse Vigen set a quick standard of 1:12.25 aboard his VisitLethbridge.com rig two heats earlier.
'Vigen's always tough and there's a lot of beautiful outfits here,' said Fike, who traversed the GMC Stadium track in the night's quickest clocking of 1:11.73. 'This is not an easy thing to do to win the top time of the night because there's some amazing horses.'
To start the 10-day show, Fike went with his lead team of Blacktop on the right and Blue on the left with Rider as his right wheeler and Bro on the left wheel.
'That outfit's been pretty beautiful for me all year,' said the 37-year-old reinsman from Cremona, Alta. 'They come in, they stand like soldiers. When the horn goes, they really start and make a nice smooth turn. And then if I don't outturn them guys, they can really run, too, so I'm just pretty blessed to own those four horses.
'They start, they turn and they run. You need to do all three things to be tough and they do it.'
As for his outriders, Kale Lajeunesse rode Oscar on opening night, while Ryan McAleney galloped around the track behind Fike on Voodoo.
In need of an outrider to work for him at the 2024 Wild West WPCA World Chuckwagon Finals in Ponoka, Alta., Fike persuaded McAleney to come out of retirement.
'At the finals last year, we were short of guys and I convinced him to come back and he caught the bug again,' said Fike, who used to outride with McAleney back in the day before switching to being a full-time driver. 'He used to drive chuckwagons on the Western Chuckwagon Association circuit until his dad (Bruce) passed away and then he was out of the sport and always wanted to get back into it.'
Fike has confidence that he and his team can build upon their strong start to the Rangeland Derby.
'I've got really two solid outfits here,' said Fike, who's currently sitting in fourth spot in the World Professional Chuckwagon Association driver standings behind Rae Croteau Jr., Obrey Motowylo and Jamie Laboucane. 'All I've got to do is do my job and stay clean and they're going to do their job and run me tough in there.
'That's the name in the game at this one — just keep clean, because a lot of guys will stub their toe and, yeah, see where it shakes out.'
Fike mixed things up for the second night of racing action on Saturday by going with his lead team of Mohawk and Cowboy followed by wheelers Rocco and Mud, while choosing to get Lajeunesse and McAleney to hop atop Launch and Knox, respectively.
Whichever horses he decides to use, Fike knows that staying penalty-free will help him in his quest to finish as one of the three top drivers after nine nights of racing who will qualify to compete in the final heat on Championship Sunday on July 13.
'I'm always motivated coming into Stampede,' Fike said. 'I know we were tough all year. We had about at least two seconds in penalties every show but Ponoka and we're still sitting pretty high in the worlds, so it just goes to show how tough the horses are. I know if we stay clean, we'll be right there.'
At the Ponoka Stampede, Fike finished second in the aggregate standings behind Vigen. Even though Fike won his semifinal heat last Monday night, that still didn't qualify him to compete in the $75,000 Tommy Dorchester Championship Final Heat on Canada Day.
'Usually at least one guy from each heat gets there, so I figured if I just won that race, I'd be in for sure, so I was pretty surprised,' said Fike who finished just 22/100ths of a second away from securing his berth in the final.
Instead, all four drivers from the other semifinal — Vigen, Evan Salmond, Laboucane and Logan Gorst — qualified to compete in the event's dash for cash, which Gorst ultimately won.
It's the first time since the Ponoka Stampede introduced the semifinal format in 2012 that all four wagons came out of the same semifinal heat.
'That's how she goes,' Fike said. 'There's no sense in getting upset about it. You just do all you can do.'
Which is exactly what the two-time winner of the WPCA Most Improved Driver Award intends to do for the rest of his time in Calgary.