Dayton Sutherland was only 15 years old when his grandpa let him drive one of his chuckwagons for the first time. As author Glen Mikkelsen details in his book, Kelly Sutherland King Of The Chucks, Dayton was taken aback when his grandpa told him to jump on the seat and grab the four lines.
“He didn’t really say much as I was driving out,” Dayton told Mikkelsen. “We were driving his best outfit. They’d just competed in Calgary, and it was probably only a couple years after he won Calgary with these horses.”
Thrown into the driver's seat
If Dayton thought his grandpa was going to ease him into learning to drive a wagon, he soon found out otherwise. “Dayton thought it was going to be a regular morning, and then Kelly says to him, ‘Well if you’re going to learn how to drive a wagon, you’d better do it today,’ and threw Dayton right in there,” Mikkelsen said. “Dayton had hardly any experience driving four thoroughbreds and suddenly he’s driving one of Kelly’s top outfits. There wasn’t really much of a learning curve. It was, ‘Ok, you better get at it. Let’s go.’”
Now competing as a driver at the Calgary Stampede for the third straight year, Dayton still remembers those early lessons from the record-setting, 12-time Rangeland Derby champion. “That’s the irony about who he is and how he was as a mentor — like as far as life advice and business advice, he’s very, very solid and gives you lots of practical things that you can apply,” said Dayton on Thursday, the morning after guiding his Truman Homes outfit around the Stampede Park track in a time of 1:12.01 to finish fourth on the night for a $4,500 payday. “And the wagons, which is ultimately what he was known for and best at, it was very much the opposite. It was like, figure it out kind of thing.”
Next generation of Flying Feathers
In a chapter titled The Next Generation of Flying Feathers, Mikkelsen writes about how Kelly’s two grandsons — Dayton and Tuff Dreger — have taken up the reins to keep the family tradition alive. “They both are very reflective and honour Kelly’s legacy by continuing to wear the eagle feathers in their cowboy hats,” said Mikkelsen. “They understand that represents the family, represents the family brand, honours their grandfather, but I think today, it’s just kind of different circumstances for those young men to get into the sport.”
Like his cousin, Tuff took up driving at a young age under his grandfather’s tutelage. “A lot of my memories of him driving were in the field, teaching me how to start, mentoring me and showing me the basics in the field where we train at his place in Grand Prairie,” said Tuff, who’s quoted in Mikkelsen’s book that he’s “addicted” to the sport of chuckwagon racing. “This is a sport that just keeps you coming back, right? Everything about it is addictive, for sure.”
