Lightning Luke wins first Stompede title
Posted June 3, 2019 12:33 pm.
Last Updated June 3, 2019 12:42 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
GRANDE PRAIRIE (660 NEWS) – “Lightning” Luke Tournier has pulled out ahead in the 2019 World Professional Chuckwagon Association standings after winning the 2019 Grande Prairie Stompede.
Tournier won the final heat of the weekend with a time of 1:16:66, defeating reigning WPCA Champion Kurt Bensmiller (1:16:10), Cody McCurrach (1:17:34), and Vern Nolin (1:19:27).
Along with winning the $50,000 Dash for Cash and the Stompede title Sunday night, Tournier won the Ralph Vigen Memorial Aggregate award after clocking the fastest time after the first four days of racing, in which he won a brand new truck.
Tournier said that after winning the aggregate and being given the truck, everything that follows is a bonus.
“You take the pressure off because the pressure is trying to make it into the dash,” Tournier said. “Once you’re in the dash, you try to do your best, hook your best horses and go as fast as you can.”
He added that the win came at a convenient time, as his son and outrider Quaid Tournier had his truck stolen a week before the WPCA season started. However, Tournier did not say who will be driving the new truck and who will be driving the old truck.
The 31-year veteran came in 12th in the World standings last year, and his last big win was in 2017 and the Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede.
For Calgary’s local drivers, it wasn’t the first stop they had hoped for.
Jordie Fike is sitting 11th with a combined time of 5:10:06, Mark Sutherland is 23rd with 5:15:88, and Jason Glass is 31st with 5:22:41.
The next stop on the circuit is in Saskatoon starting Thursday.
