By rdnewsNOW staff

Calgary Stampede canvas auction brings in over $3,000,000

Mar 21, 2019 | 7:47 AM

CALGARY- It looks like times could be improving in the Calgary economy if the 2019 Calgary Stampede GMC Rangeland Derby Chuckwagon Canvas Auction is any indication.

That’s up from the 3.24-million raised last year but well short of the record of just over four-million pledged in 2012.

The auction is considered a bellwether for the health of Alberta’s oil and gas industry, as many of the sponsors who pay to have their company names on the wagons are energy industry players.

Still, the auction was a tremendous success with the fifth highest total in the 41-year history of the event, bringing in just shy of 3.3 million dollars.

Fifteen drivers eclipsed the $100,000 mark.

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Bidders spent $2,417,500 on the 25 drivers that will compete on the 2019 World Professional Chuckwagon Association (WPCA) Pro Tour, with $865,000 bid on the remaining 11 drivers who will compete on the Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association (CPCA) circuit in 2019.

A total of $3,238.000 was bid on the 36 participating wagons.

2012 GMC Rangeland Derby Champion Troy Dorchester received the high bid of $150,000, $20,000 above 2018’s top bid of $130,000 for defending champion Kurt Bensmiller.

Natural gas producer Painted Pony Energy of Calgary bid 105-thousand dollars to sponsor a chuckwagon driven by Gary Gorst for a third year.

It plans to share the 10 days of races with Calgary-based AltaGas.

The low bid for the sale was $52,500 was down slightly from 2018, the median bid on all 36 wagons was $90,000, up slightly from the median bid of 2018.

The next chuckwagon auction will be on Friday, May 3, in Ponoka for another of chuckwagon racing’s iconic events – the Ponoka Stampede.

(Gary McKinnon – The Canadian Press)