Glass holding points lead
While the finish won’t be as dramatic during this weekend’s chuck wagon stop at Strathmore, the points will be just as big to those vying for the World Pro championship.
The perennial Heritage Days run is suddenly just a four-day show decided by aggregate time.
A return in tour sponsorship to GMC this year has eliminated what was a perennial fifth-day dash to crown a tour champion.
The format, instituted in 1998, involved the top eight-pointed wagons in the season’s standings in which the victor, more recently, received use of a new Dodge truck for one year.
Now the 36 drivers compete in a season-long Sierra Cup series and for the keys to a handful of GMC trucks at assorted stops throughout the season.
Strathmore somehow didn’t qualify this year.
“There’s usually so much excitement pulling into Strathmore, but with just a four-day aggregate it’s definitely not near as exciting, which is too bad,” said points leader Jason Glass on Wednesday.
“Hopefully we can build this show back up in the future.”
Glass will take a 77-point lead over nearest pursuer Luke Tournier into Friday night’s opening run where the No. 1 man each day can rack up 36 points plus that many again by finishing No. 1 in the aggregate.
In fact, there are only 115 points separating the top seven wagons with 14 days left in the season and Glass knows how quickly things can change as he pursues his fourth World title, and first since 2009.
“There’s a lot of tough wagons behind us so we have to keep running fast,” said the recent finalist at the Calgary Stampede.
“There’s 14 days left and that’s another 500 points or so. I’d say there’s six, seven guys close enough to win it.”
Glass and Kelly Sutherland have won the last six World titles but the latter is well down in the standings at No. 15 and almost 200 points off the pace. Mark Sutherland, however, sits fourth with 647.5 points and Kelly’s brother, Kirk, is sixth with 641 points.
Kelly and Mark also have won the last two Strathmore shows.
Glass has shown big run all season, right from the opening victory at Grande Prairie through Calgary, where he actually overcame six seconds in penalties to qualify for the championship dash.
He went two-wide in the $150,000 final to cross the line first in a three-wagon photo finish but was set back with a two-second penalty for what many thought was a controversial interference judgment.
“I’ll never forget it, but you have to carry on,” he said of the Stampede disappointment.
THIS AND THAT: Racing will go nightly at 7:30 Friday through Sunday with Monday’s action starting at 5 p.m.
The wagons then will rush to pack and head to Dawson Creek for a five-day show starting on Wednesday.