Daniel King (left) and Jason Glawson, seen here at Glawson’s property north of Meadow Lake, are looking forward to an exciting season as part of the Western Chuckwagon Association.
by Phil Ambroziak
There’s going to be a new King on the chuckwagon circuit this summer.
Meadow Lake area resident Daniel King has signed on for a full season with the Western Chuckwagon Association (WCA), a decision he made after competing in two races last year.
“I’ll be leaving Friday and won’t be back until the season is over,” King said when contacted last week. “I ran a couple of shows last year with DJ (2015 Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association rookie driver DJ King) in Cold Lake and Grand Prairie, but now it’s going to be for a full season. I finished in the top 10 at those two shows and did pretty well for myself in the overall rankings even though I only raced on two different occasions.”
An experienced chuckwagon competitor, King also has a history that includes outriding, as well as both bareback and saddle bronc competition. He started with pony wagons and moved on to the big wagons 12 years ago when he competed in the Las Vegas Stampede and placed 15th overall. He has earned several wins and awards over the years including the CPCA’s Harold Schiller Memorial Award for Most Sportsmanlike Driver two years in a row.
“I’ve been driving horses ever since I was a kid,” he said. “But, it was actually my family member and neighbour (and fellow driver) Jason Glawson who talked me into coming along this year. I’ve been helping him out, showing him some stuff, but I still have to race against him, so I haven’t shown him everything.”
Glawson, who is new to the WCA this year, started racing pony chuckwagons when he was still a teenager.
“I ran ponies since I was 16, but decided to take a year off last season to gather equipment and horses, and to prepare myself for driving the big wagons,” Glawson explained. “I kind of made my move slowly. I’d always talked about it and then Daniel came over one day, asked if I was still interested and here we are.”
Glawson said he loves the sport, the horses and the adrenaline, and has a number of wins and awards to his name as well, including many Best Barrelling Awards and several Sportsmanship Awards.
“I look forward to meeting new people, seeing different places and growing as a driver,” Glawson continued. “It’s a little different – we move around the barrels much slower than we do with ponies, which gives me more time to think. Other than that, it’s sort of the same thing I’ve always done, just on a much larger scale.”
The 2015 WCA season gets underway May 27-31 with the Grand Prairie Stompede. It wraps up Aug. 5-9 in Dawson Creek, B.C.
Meanwhile, several drivers from throughout the Northwest will officially be a part of the 2015 CPCA season when it gets underway this weekend in North Battleford. Local drivers include Layne Bremner from Rapid View, Rocky Bremner formerly of Meadow Lake, Dallas Dyck formerly of Meadow Lake, BJ Carey formerly of Meadow Lake, Ross Fisher of Meadow Lake, Kris Flanagan of Meadow Lake, DJ King of Meadow Lake, Gordon McCallum of Meadow Lake, Dean Mitsuing of Loon Lake, Ray Mitsuing of Loon Lake, Shane Nolin of Rapid View, Vern Nolin formerly of Rapid View, Kirby Stanley of Meadow Lake, Ken Studer of Loon Lake and Billy Joe Villeneuve of Meadow Lake.
On the World Professional Chuckwagon Association (WPCA) circuit, which starts this week in Grand Prairie, Gary, Logan and Dustin Gorst of Meadow Lake will be competing, as will Roger Moore of Loon Lake and former Rapid View resident Jerry Bremner.
