Adrenaline-driven drivers left nothing on the table at the North West Mud Racing Association (NWMRA) sanctioned Scotty’s 100 Mile Mud Drags on the weekend.
Slightly more than 50 vehicles churned up the muck, Sept. 1-2 at 105 Mile, in a trio of carefully prepared pits.
While the Cariboo gumbo claimed a few victims, Overdraft, driven by Steve Strell of Langley set a new track record of 2.346 seconds in the paddle class event, annihilating the old record of 2.364. The record came on his final pass of the event, which NWMRA spokesperson Dave Biddlecomb says was no surprise.
“It’s typically when people put their machines on kill. They’ll go for broke on the last pass of the weekend.”
Crowds were moderate on Saturday when cooler weather prevailed, but they came out in greater numbers on Sunday, when it was warmer. Over the two days, 323 adults and 140 children came through the gate.
The event was the final one of a five-event NWMRA series and when total points were tallied, Boondoggle driven by Jim Meade from Lac la Hache finished in second place overall in E Class. He also placed first and posted the fastest time on the weekend in the same event.
In A Class competition, Bad Habit Two, driven by Kyle Buchanan of Lone Butte, was first with the best three of four passes made on the weekend. He also had the fastest time in his class. Austin Briand of Lone Butte drove Son of a Redneck to fourth place.
Midlife Crisis driven by Chris Meeres of Prince George won the B Class event and also picked up second place in the D event.
Dirty 30s, driven by Brad Astbury of Langley, was first in F Class, and Terry Barton of Lac la Hache picked up a third-place finish in the Street Class event driving Old Ugly.
The Street Class competition also had Rod Morton of Lone Butte drive The Fishing Truck to fourth place.
“It was challenging mud,” says Christine Biddlecomb, NWMRA head timer. “It was quite gooey and thick and hard on the cars. That kind of mud creates a lot of breakage and it did.”
She adds it was a great weekend all in all.
“It was a good crowd and lots of cheering. On some of the really good passes, the crowd just went nuts.”
One of the highlights was Saturday’s halftime show during which a Ford Escort was run without coolant and people had to guess how long it would last. After the engine gave up, Bumpy, a monster truck driven by Leonard and Gerald Stern of Mission drove over the car, trying to finish it off. The plan backfired with Bumpy rolling over onto its side. Next, the indestructible little car withstood the assault of a front-end loader for some time before finally caving in.
