Yet another Bensmiller wins in Strathmore

By Laurence Heinen Times Contributor

Although he didn’t finish first in his heat, Chance Bensmiller won a much bigger prize on Monday at the Strathmore Stampede.

Racing in Heat 4 aboard his Core Ag Inputs Outfit, Bensmiller finished second in a time of 1:16.89 behind Kris Molle (Benoit Oilfield Construction), who traversed the track in the World Professional Chuckwagon Association show’s quickest clocking (1:14.85) of the four-day event. 

While Molle took home the top day-money prize, it was Bensmiller who finished atop the aggregate standings to earn himself a cheque for almost $10,000.

“It means the world to me after the whole COVID thing and having a year off,” said the 35-year-old reinsman from Dewberry, Alta., who edged out Kirk Sutherland (Hodge Pressure Services Ltd./Daler Pressure Services Ltd.) by 2/100ths of a second to take home the Strathmore Stampede title. “The horses, they were ready to run and obviously after this week, it shows how ready they were.”

Bensmiller followed in the footsteps of his older brother Kirk, who was the top driver in Strathmore in 2012 before earning back-to-back titles in 2018-19, and his dad Buddy, who won it all at the Stampede in 1992.

“It’s huge,” Bensmiller said. “Obviously my dad and my brother have both won it and I’m back here after a 10-year hiatus running the CPCA (Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association).”

Having to fend off challenges from the likes of his older brother and Sutherland, both of whom ran two outfits in Strathmore, was no easy feat for Bensmiller.

“Guys are ready and they’re rocking and rolling,” he said. “These horses are running. With that year off, these horses they need a place to go and they know what they’re doing.”

Aboard their No. 2 outfits, Sutherland and Kurt Bensmiller had quite the race in Monday’s second heat. Bensmiller stopped the clock at 1:16.11 to edge out Sutherland by 1/100ths of a second at the finish line to win the heat.

Despite finishing just behind the three-time Stampede champion, Sutherland was sitting in top spot overall with a four-day aggregate time of 5:06.27.

Along with his outriders Brendan Nolin and Nolan Cameron, the younger Bensmiller brother then did what he had to do in Heat 4 to finish the meet with an aggregate clocking of 5:06.25 to narrowly beat Sutherland.

“I knew it was going to be tight no matter how you look at it,” said Bensmiller, who was joined in the infield by his wife Karly and sons Cash, 10, Quinn, 3, and Ace, 1, to accept his prize from track announcer Les McIntyre. “There’s just no way I could go down the road without all the support. It’s huge having my boys here. That’s why I picked up my youngest there and held him up over everybody. It’s huge.”

Bensmiller also commended the crowds for coming out to cheer on the drivers following a one-year absence of chuckwagon racing in Strathmore.

“You can feel every inch of it,” he said. “You pull onto the racetrack and generally I shut things off – I only hear myself and my horses – but every night coming out here, you can hear every single person going and it’s an amazing feeling.”

While Nolin has several years of experience as an outrider on both the CPCA and WPCA circuits, the Strathmore Stampede was the first show for Cameron, who Bensmiller met in Dewberry only a few weeks ago.

“I actually asked him over to shoe a couple horses and one thing led to another,” Bensmiller recalled. “He said, ‘Hey, do you need an outrider?’ So, I took him on and this was his maiden voyage and he won his first buckle.”

As for the aggregate standings, Kurt Bensmiller ended up in third spot with a total time of 5:06.35, while Layne MacGillvray (5:08.77) and Obrey Motowylo (5:08.78) rounded out the top-five finishers.