July 8 – Day 1 – 2011 Calgary Stampede Rangeland Derby

The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth kicked off on Friday night in Calgary with the running of the 89th running of the Calgary Stampede Rangeland Derby. It was a cool night for racing at 14°C under partly cloudy skies with good racetrack conditions, and the day saw 3-time Calgary Stampede finalist Rick Fraser, driving the Chickwagon! Foundation/ Heninger Toyota-Scion outfit, open the 2011 Rangeland Derby with the top time of 1:14.94.

Coming off barrel number 2 in heat number 5, Fraser won top money by 66 one-hundreds of a second over former finalist Wayne Knight. Mark Sutherland was third, Roger Moore placed fourth and Obrey Motowylo rounded out the top 5 for the night.

The aggregate winner will be declared after 8 nights on Friday, July 15, and the top 8 in the aggregate on that day will go into “Semi Final Saturday.” The top 4 times from heats 8 and 9 on semi final Saturday on July 16 will go into the sudden death championship final heat. The winner of the final heat will be declared the 2011 Calgary Stampede Rangeland Derby Champion.

Day 2 from the Calgary Stampede Rangeland Derby can be heard live on Saturday, July 9 at 6:15pm on Classic Country AM1060 out of Calgary, 890AM CJDC out of Dawson Creek, 99.7 FM The Wolf out of Bonnyville. 96.6 CKFM out of Olds.

Billy Melville

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