Ray Mitsuing leaves a lasting impact on the CPCA, and chuckwagon racing in general, as a fierce competitor and ambassador for the sport. (Submitted/CVM Photography)

By Martin Martinson

Leaving a Legacy

Remembering Ray Mitsuing: A CPCA legend on and off the track

May 1, 2024 | 9:30 AM

With the news of Ray Mitsuing’s recent passing, local drivers from the Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association (CPCA) are sharing their memories and stories remembering Loon Lake’s legendary Chuckwagon champion.

A seven-time CPCA champion and four-time Calgary Stampede Finalist, who was recently named to the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2024, Mitsuing competed for nearly four decades in the sport, leaving a legacy that will live on for generations to come.

“Growing up in Meadow Lake, with senior hockey and chuckwagons being basically the way the community’s shaped, Ray was the forefront face of it forever in the CPCA,” Kale Lajeunesse said. “He was a fierce competitor, he won the CPCA seven times, and he always took care of his stuff. His horses were number one for him, they were like his family, and I always respected that.”

Lajeunesse, like many currently competing on the CPCA circuit from around the Meadow Lake area, got his start working for Ray and the Mistuing family.

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“When I first started coming around the sport, Ray hired me on as a farrier to put shoes on for him, and outride for him, and we grew pretty close that way,” Lajeunesse said, reflecting on his early years in the sport.

“I started riding for Ray around 2015, riding for him and with his boys Dale and Darren a ton. I’d go to their house in the spring and I’d put shoes on their horses for them and we spent a lot of time together and we had a lot of laughs together.”

Calvin Fiddler, who knew Ray from his early years growing up playing Meadow Lake Minor Hockey alongside Ray’s son, Dale, said long before he got involved in chucks himself, the elder Mitsuing was always a role model for himself like many others.

“Me and Dale were good friends so I saw Ray quite a bit and as a kid, he was my chuckwagon hero,” Fiddler said. “He was a very accomplished Aboriginal driver and a lot of Aboriginal people looked up to him. He was very accomplished, he was very well-known, and Ray and his family got me my start working their thoroughbred chuckwagon horses.”

Fiddler said he’s not sure if he’d be where he is today – now five years into driving chucks – if not for those first years in the business, working for the family from 2010 to 2012. He said Ray’s memory will live on for generations to come.

“He was very outgoing and just a nice guy to sit down and talk to,” Fiddler said. “I had the pleasure of talking with Ray and I’ve known him my whole life, so it’s tough to see him go, but he left us with a lot of good memories.”

Logan Gorst, who also worked with Ray, as an outrider, and raced against him as a competitor, said Mitsuing was always one who conducted himself with the utmost class and grace.

“He is a legend in the sport, his stats speak for themselves, and he was always a classy guy,” Gorst said. “Ray would talk to anybody, he always had coffee on, and he was an awesome person and ambassador for the sport. I was pretty lucky to be able to outride for him and race against him, and I have very fond memories of him.”

Among those memories is one from his early days working as an outrider, in which he saw Ray and his father Gary Gorst, battle it out for a horse trailer in Saskatoon.

“The race was probably within one-one-hundredth or two-one-hundredths of a second, and I was the closest one to them trying to see who won,” Gorst recalled, an audible smile creeping onto his face. “They both looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders and looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders… and as it turned out, Ray won a trailer that day in one of the closest races I’ve ever seen as an outrider.”

Despite the competitive spirit of both men on the track, what always stayed with Gorst was their mutual respect and genuine friendship of many years, throughout their time as competitors.

“Ray had some really good battles with my dad over the years and they’d always visit and have coffee,” he said looking back fondly. “They were competitive on the racetrack, but they were always friends behind the scenes which was pretty awesome to see.”

DJ King is another of the Meadow-area drivers who grew up looking up to Ray as a youngster, not only seeing him around the track – but like Fiddler – at the local rink as well, having grown up playing hockey with one of Ray’s other sons, Devin.

“We got to see him in the summer with the wagons, and then in the winter with the hockey, and like so many people sharing memories with him [have said], he was just so easy to talk to,” King said. “He had a sense of humour to him, so when you’d sit there and share stories there was always some humour to them.

King added that whether Ray was hosting the hockey team with his wife Josephine during their minor hockey practice days in Loon Lake, or extending a standing invite to tag along to Calgary to take in the Stampede Chucks action, Ray’s generosity made a lasting impact on him and many others that will last a lifetime.

“Obviously the legacy he left behind of what he did on the track is tremendous, but not only that, but for our Indigenous youth as well, there’s just so many impacts he had on everybody,” King said. “The record book will speak for itself, but it was more than just the records that left an impact on everyone.”

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Martin.Martinson@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @MartyMartyPxP1