Mud events are big news around the country, and rightly so--they are a blast. We usually have no idea what we are in for when we jump on a plane and head off to a mudfest, except we know we're always in for a great time. Being truck guys, we're certain it has something to do with the hundreds of uniquely and heavily modified rigs and furious 4x4 action--oh, and the fact that 99.9 percent of the participants and spectators have a smile on their face and mud in their teeth.
Mudders come out of the woodwork, and usually before the gate to the event opens there's already a line a mile or two long. By midday thousands of participants are enthusiastically flogging their trucks like rental cars. The mud events at Lakeland Motor Sports Park in Lakeland, Florida, are no exception. This year the park's Muddy Muddy Christmas Races and Bog drew an astounding 4,000 people and a few hundred mud trucks and vehicles. This is one of the largest mud events of the year in this part of the country. Trucks of every size, shape, and form went screaming down the mud drag or swimming window-deep in some of the thickest goo we've experienced in a while.
If you haven't been to a Lakeland mud event yet, it's an occasion we highly recommend--and just like us, we know they will keep you coming back for more.
Mud drags, bogs, and races...
Mud drags, bogs, and races always draw some of the most uniquely fabricated 4x4s we ever see. There's always a good representation of old farm trucks, professionally built race trucks, and then the old beater vehicles taken to the mud event for their last hurrah. If there's one thing you can be sure of, it's that a fire-breathing big-block is tucked neatly under the hoods of most rigs.
We are always amazed by the...
We are always amazed by the amount of daily-drivers we find at mud events. More astonishing is the number of these trucks that actually survive the day without a blown or hydrolocked engine. This Toyota Tundra was fitted with a solid-axle conversion and 40-inch tires. The height of the truck kept its intake from sucking up mud and water and helped the Tundra make it through the day without any problems.
The Christmas season just...
The Christmas season just isn't complete unless a few of Santa's helpers are hanging around to cheer things up. By the way, Santa traded in his sleigh for a Corvette rolling large on 39-inch Super Swampers. Now we really have Santa envy!
The truck mud drags are the...
The truck mud drags are the highlight event of the day. These monster mudders are built like tanks and barrel down the track amazingly fast. It's surprising that the trucks actually stay on track. It's like controlled mechanical rage powered by high-octane fuel and liters of adrenaline.
There's no better way to get...
There's no better way to get down and dirty and become one with the mud than blasting through the bogs on an ATV. These two daredevils buried their ATV hip-deep in mud and spent the next couple hours trying to extract it. We couldn't figure out if they had more fun burying it or trying to recover it.
The Lakeland Motorsports Park...
The Lakeland Motorsports Park hosted a number of events during Muddy Muddy Christmas, including a race for vehicles on their way to truck and car heaven. This race event didn't have any mud, but included plenty of jumps. This old J3000 shows perfect form as it clears a deep pit. Other vehicles weren't so lucky and nosedived into the landing ramp, meeting an early demise.
A word to parents from an...
A word to parents from an editorial staff that has attended numerous mud events: Don't let your kids take the family car to a mud event if you ever want to drive it again. We can say this from experience. If you do, you will probably never be able to use it for grocery shopping.
We don't find too many mud...
We don't find too many mud rigs that don't have a high-horsepower big-block engine hidden under the hood. This little Suzuki Samurai wowed the crowd with its horsepower and performance as it powered its way through obstacles that gave much larger trucks a run for their money.
It's always fun watching the...
It's always fun watching the recovery tractor extract the stuck rigs from the mud pits. It's a good lesson in recovery tactics, especially when all of the vehicle's recovery points are buried 3 feet under the sticky slop.
This Dodge Dakota on Rockwell...
This Dodge Dakota on Rockwell axles looks as if it's being swallowed alive by the mud gods. But it's actually powering its way through one of the deepest sections of the race course. Just so you can grasp how deep this mud really is, the bottoms of this Dakota's doors start about 5 feet off the ground.