RUMFORD – Last year, a Rumford businessman decided to have a section of trees and brush removed from land adjacent to his Oxford Lanes bowling alley off Route 2.
The idea was to increase visibility from the highway of the bowling alley and its small miniature golf park, Rick Nokes said Thursday.
But, while he and the man he hired, Tim Tyler, were out clearing trees, they found a pit that Tyler said had great potential for a mud run track.
Mud run competitions usually involve pickup trucks racing through mud to see who can go the fastest.
“It’s like drag racing, but it’s in mud,” Nokes said.
He said he was skeptical of converting that section of land into a mud hole.
“When he first talked me into doing it, I was downcast. I thought nobody would show up,” Nokes said. “I’d never seen one, let alone run one,” he added.
But when summer came last year, the first Moontide Mud Run featured pickup trucks racing through 2 feet of mud for 160 to 180 feet. It attracted a crowd of several hundred people much to Nokes’s amazement.
“People love it when someone gets stuck. Kids get splattered with mud, and they love it. It’s a family outing, and good clean fun,” despite the mud, Nokes said.
He donated money raised from the first event to the Moontide Festival. He held a second mud run race that summer.
Now, Nokes said he donates a portion of the money raised after expenses to the festival.
This year, heavy rains in May forced him to reschedule the Memorial Day Moontide Mud Run to Father’s Day.
“The bleachers were under water,” Nokes said.
But, despite holding the race on June 14, 800 people attended.
“We’ve had crowds of up to 1,400 people,” Nokes said.
The second race of the season is to be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, July 10. Registration begins at 9 a.m. for drivers of trucks entered in seven different classes, from two-wheel drive pickups to those with nitrous oxide-fueled engines.
Admission is $10 for adults; children 12 and under get in free. A third mud run is to be held in August.
If crowds continue to flock to the races, he said he would add more bleachers. He’s also got plans to continue the mud run next year, making it a two-day event to attract more business to the area.
“It’s quite an event to see. Some of the trucks we had here at the last one, I could walk under the rear bumper, and I’m 6 feet tall,” Nokes said.
Go and do:
What: Moontide Mud Run, sanctioned by Maine Mud Bog Association, seven different truck classes
When: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, July 10; race registration at 9 a.m.
Where: Next to Oxford Lanes bowling alley on Route 2 in Rumford
Cost: $10 for adults; children 12 and under free
Information: Rick Nokes at 364-7800
Comments are no longer available on this story