Kris Flanagan (top left), Logan Pethick (top right), and Logan Gorst (bottom) are among the Meadow Lake locals making headlines in the CPCA this season. (Submitted photos/Coco Productions (top left)/CVM Photography (top right/bottom)

By Martin Martinson

Top of the Leaderboard

Meadow Lake locals making waves in CPCA

Jun 28, 2023 | 5:26 PM

Meadow Lake has stormed out of the gates to start the 2023 season on the Chuckwagon track.

Heading into the fourth stop on the Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association (CPCA) summer schedule this weekend in Onion Lake, SK., both the driver and outrider standings feature a Meadow Lake rider in the top spot overall, with a number of familiar faces also making an impact this season.

Veteran of the CPCA circuit, Logan Gorst leads the aggregate driver standings with 412.5 points, while Kris Flanagan sits fifth at 393, highlighted by his big win in North Battleford, giving the community two in the top five drivers, overall.

The same can be said for the outrider standings, where Meadow Lake’s Logan Pethick leads all outriders with 1,928 points, and Kale Lajeunesse sits fifth with 1,184.

“Meadow Lake is a rodeo, chuckwagon town,” Gorst said when asked about the impact the locals have had this year. “We’ve produced a lot of good outriders and good drivers, so I’m pretty proud of all the guys that have been doing well.”

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The Meadow Lake presence near the top of the leaderboard coincides with a youth movement in the CPCA ranks this year, helped out by the influx of new area drivers.

Of the nine Meadow Lake drivers competing this season, five have made their debut in the organization in the last five years, including Randall Stanley (2019), Calvin Fiddler (2021), Colby Stanley (2021), Jason McCallum (2022), and Jonathan Blatz (2023).

“I was kind of joking to Luke Tournier as we were sitting up on the hill and watching a dash and it was all a younger generation with Kris Flanagan and Preston Faithful and Ryan Baptiste. There was no old boys in there,” Gorst said with a laugh. “It’s good you’re starting to see the younger guys starting to run a lot tougher, it’s been fun.”

The CPCA summer schedule kicked off in Meadow Lake this year at the community’s 100^th Anniversary Stampede, marking the final time the chucks will be held at the Meadow Lake Stampede Grounds, where the dream of one day competing on the circuit was built for many, including the current outrider leader in Pethick.

“We’d always go watch when the races came to Meadow when I was young, and when I’d watch I’d always tell my parents ‘I want to be an outrider,’” he recalled.

So that’s what he did; working his way up from barn hand to outriding, with this year’s success only building on the momentum from recent years, having won the outrider high point championship for a second time last year, in addition to doing so in 2018.

Pethick said while many of the Meadow Lake guys know each other quite well from their time in chucks, being around the community, and in many cases playing senior hockey together with the Meadow Lake Broncos, once it’s go time, it’s all focus on the task at hand.

“I know Logan and Dustin [Gorst] used to play, DJ King and I and Kale [Lajeunesse] and Colby Stanley play, so we see each other all winter long too as well as in the summer,” he said with a laugh, considering just how many suit up with the Broncos’ hockey team.

“When we’re on the track it’s all business, it’s all competition, but once we get off the track we’ll go back and sit around the fire and joke around all night.”

With the veteran guard of Gorst and King and Flanagan still going strong and the youthful push of the next wave of riders hitting their stride early, Meadow Lake looks to be in good hands on the chuckwagon track for years to come.

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Martin.Martinson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @MartyMartyPxP1