Mud drag racers from all over BC gathered in Forest Grove last weekend for 100 Mile Horsepower Ranch's Mud Races.
The event was held on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, around 45 minutes near Forest Grove and is sanctioned by the North West Mud Racing Association. Around 1,000 people attended the event, not counting the racers, according to Leanna Davies the event's organizer and co-owner of 100 Mile Horsepower Ranch.
"We absolutely love it - the amount of people that come out, and it's like all ages - from little kids to grandparents. Everybody absolutely enjoys this event so much," Davies said.
There is also a strong sense of camaraderie among the men and women who race according to Chad Coelen who drove his 1987 Ford Bronco this weekend. Coelen said he recently lost his daughter Brianna Leigh, aged just 13, and during the race, he commemorated her life and was touched when many of his fellow racers did the same.
"On the front of my truck I had "fly, Brianna, fly" and everybody literally sported the pink ribbon to support Brianna," stated Coelen about how the mud racers rallied around him. He commented that the camaraderie that the racers and the fans had shown was amazing.
As for the race itself, Coelen participated in the street stock category as well as J Hook racing. Coelen has been mud racing since 2015, and says it is an "adrenaline rush." He also had good things to say about the non-profit association.
"The NWMRA is not just like a racing ordeal - it is literally a family, and you know if somebody breaks something, we all come through and we pull parts," states Coelen.
Other racers included Michael van der Meij, who came up from Cloverdale, BC. van der Meij is also the vice president of the NWMRA and called the event excellent, citing the great crowd and volunteers that were there.
"I find it different than drag racing - I like the scenery much more - the people. It just seems to be a really different atmosphere from a lot of the other racing - and that's what drew me into the sport," van der Meij said, when asked what got him into mud racing.
At the event, he was involved with racing in paddle tire class, as well as pro pit racing. He drove a 1927 Ford T-Bucket during the event.
Davies also participated in the event. A post by Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Lorne Doerkson, who attended the mud race on Sunday, showed Davies participating in the Hill and Hole course, where she completed the course to a cheering audience.
