A few raindrops and a little hail fell, but it was a great night of racing nonetheless on opening night of the Battle of the Rockies in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. Kirk Sutherland won the day money and established a new track record with a run of 1:14.61.
Coming off barrel number 1 in heat 9, Sutherland, driving the EMCO Corporation Outfit, won the day money by 71 one-hundreds of a second over Troy Flad who despite a one second late outrider penalty still managed a second place run on the night. Jerry Bremner, defending champion Rick Fraser and Chad Harden rounded out the top five for the night. Sutherlands track record run bettered Rick Fraser’s 2010 mark by a huge 3.26 seconds.
The chuckwagon recording the top aggregate time over the 4 days of the show will be declared the 2011 Battle of the Rockies Champion. Live radio coverage of the Battle of the Rockies from Rocky Mountain House, Alberta can be heard starting at 6:45pm Friday and Saturday, with Sunday starting at 1:45pm on Classic Country AM1060 out of Calgary, 890AM CJDC out of Dawson Creek and 99.7 FM The Wolf out of Bonnyville.
Billy Melville
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Day 1 Results
Rank Driver Sponsor Total Time
1 Kirk Sutherland EMCO Corporation 1:14.61
2 Troy Flad Ironwood Building Systems 1:15.32
3 Jerry Bremner W. Pidhirney Welding Ltd. 1:15.44
4 Chad Harden encana 1:15.47
5 Rick Fraser Neway Oilfield Services 1:15.68
6 Rae Croteau Jr. TOMCO Group of Companies 1:15.69
7 Jordie Fike Penn West Exploration 1:15.77
8 Obrey Motowylo H & E Oilfield Services Ltd. 1:15.91
9 Cody Ridsdale Glover International Trucks 1:15.95
10 Hugh Sinclair Specialized Tech Inc. 1:15.99