Vegas lands four days of chuckwagon races

Tuesday, March 26, 2002 | 11:24 a.m.

Organizers of a growing Western sport with thousands of Canadian followers hope a championship event in downtown Las Vegas next fall will be a springboard to developing a U.S. following.

The Las Vegas Stampede, a series of chuckwagon races, will be conducted on 61 acres west of the Fremont Street Experience and the Plaza hotel-casino Sept. 19-22.

Chuckwagon racing -- a modern-day blend of Roman chariot racing, rodeo barrel racing and NASCAR sponsorships -- has a 52-year history of competition through the World Professional Chuckwagon Association (WPCA), based in Calgary, Alberta. Chuckwagon races routinely draw 20,000 spectators a night for a series of races at the Calgary Stampede, one of Canada's largest rodeos.

Professional Wagon Racing, a Canadian company created specifically for developing the Las Vegas Stampede, is making a formal announcement in Calgary today about the inaugural races, to be coordinated locally by Las Vegas Events.

"We've been dreaming about this for three years," said John Higgins, president of Professional Wagon Racing and the marketing director for the WPCA. "We see this as the final jewel of the triple crown of Western sports and all of them will have their championships in Las Vegas."

The other two events Higgins was referring to are the Professional Bull Riders finals in October and the National Finals Rodeo in December, both at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Higgins said the Las Vegas Stampede would invite the top 18 chuckwagon teams on the WPCA money list and six other qualifiers. The WPCA race schedule includes 11 summer events across Alberta and British Columbia.

"It's the most exciting thing that has ever happened to the sport, and I've been around it for 30 years," said Kelly Sutherland, an eight-time world champion of the event.

Sutherland, who has won the races at the Calgary Stampede nine times, made $450,000 racing chuckwagons last year.

"It's unbelievable what this is going to do for wagon racing," Sutherland said.

Sutherland said he hopes the Las Vegas Stampede will lead to the development of a winter circuit of racing in warm-weather southwestern locations. He said the Canadian race circuit's growth is limited by the short summer season.

The Las Vegas Stampede will include eight heats of three-team races, leading to a championship "dash for cash" race.

The race begins with a gun or horn and outriders must load a stove and tent poles into the back of the wagon. Once loaded, the wagon and outriders must ride a figure-eight pattern around two barrels before entering a five-eighths-mile oval track, which must be run counterclockwise. Teams can be penalized for knocking over barrels, wagon and driver interference and starting the course without being properly loaded.

Each wagon is decorated with a sponsoring tarp, giving the event a NASCAR feel, although Higgins said there's only one sponsor per wagon. Major corporate supporters of chuckwagon racing in Canada include Daimler Chrysler's Dodge truck line; Jim Beam bourbon; Wrangler jeans; Peak Manufacturing, which builds recreational vehicles; Roper, a Western apparel and footwear company; Schrade Knives, Fountain Tires; H.L. Powell Trucking; and the Calgary Herald newspaper.

Chuckwagon racing got a local boost in December when wagons were run during the opening ceremonies of the National Finals Rodeo.

Higgins said he expects about 10,000 Canadians will make the trip to Las Vegas to participate in or see the inaugural event.

Tim Keener, director of event operations for Las Vegas Events, said details are still being worked out on sponsorships for the races. Temporary bleachers and restrooms will be built at the downtown site on what is presently vacant land. If the event is successful as organizers hope, consideration will be given to developing a permanent venue site at an undetermined location. The City of Las Vegas is considering different development options for the 61 acres.

Keener also is in the middle of negotiations to bring another, unrelated equestrian event to Las Vegas.

The National Horse Show, a series of competitive riding events that have been staged since 1883, is in negotiations with Las Vegas Events to bring the competition to the Thomas & Mack Center next fall.

Show organizers say the event would no longer be at Madison Square Garden, which has commitments to the New York Knicks National Basketball Association and New York Rangers National Hockey League teams for event dates. The Horse Show wanted a firm commitment on dates three years in advance, but the arena was unwilling to negotiate anything but year-to-year contracts.

Keener said he envisions the show would be staged for four to five days around the last weekend in October. The timing of the event would be ideal, Keener said, because the arena would already be configured for the Professional Bull Riders event before the horse show and the length of the competition wouldn't interfere with the UNLV basketball season.

Keener hopes to determine whether the show will be coming to Las Vegas within a month. Show organizers are undecided because they also are considering venues in Florida. While having the Las Vegas show is appealing to organizers, they're balking because the show prior to the New York event is in Washington D.C., and organizers are concerned about the expense of shipping horses across the country within a week.

Las Vegas has played host to the World Cup Finals, another major equestrian event, in 2000, and will stage it again in 2003. Keener said he expects attendance at the National Horse Show would be about the same as the World Cup, about 10,000 people.