Mixing it up in the mud for the mutts

Normally mud and dogs are not a good combination.

Unless you put a bunch of grown men in close proximity of a soupy mix of dirt and water. Add in trucks with monster-sized tires and the end result is a fund graiser for the Humane's Society.

The crazy recipe was in full force Saturday, Aug. 2 at Spokane County Raceway where the Northwest Mud Racers Association had the mud flying all over the place in the Eighth annual Bogs 4 Dogs.

Over 40 big-tired, big-motored, high-riding rigs lined up in the Raceway oval track's infield to race side-by-side 200 feet through the mud. Tire size ranges from stock to 54-inch tractor tires where a ladder might be required to get into the driver's seat.

Horsepower is stock upwards to 900 horsepower. "A select few exceed that," Northwest Mud Racers' president Kevin Zufall said.

The event, which had previously been staged in an open field adjacent to the Humane's Society property off of Bigelow Gulch in northeast Spokane, moved to the Airway Heights racetrack this year.

"They're filling a niche," SCR general manger Craig Smith said. "It's going to be more professionally done."

Bogs 4 Dogs approached Smith a few years ago with the idea of locating that fundraiser at the race track but they did not have any infrastructure in place.

Zufall took care of that and got people together to build the course. While in the infield of the half-mile oval, it does not really interfere with any resumption of stock car racing, if that does happen in the future.

"Now Kevin's handling everything and he's got good direction," Smith said. "We're just trying to make a nice park for them to put on a show."

Last Saturday's event part of an expanded scheduled of off-road racing - specifically the mud bogs that are not offered at other facilities - at the County Raceway oval where stock car racing was cancelled earlier in the year. Four races were scheduled and one remains, Saturday, Sept. 27.

"With Craig stepping up and stepping on board and providing us a venue our thanks goes out to him," Zufall said. "It's been slow to get started as with any new venue."

Zufall said the offseason will be busy meeting with various other event and facility promoters to set up a cooperative schedule for 2015.

"We want to cater to all of the off-road industry," Zufall explained. "We want to build a tough truck course for arena-style racing, something the monster trucks can also partake in."

The good thing with what's going on at SCR is that it does not compete with other off-road activities such as motocross that takes place just down the road at the county's ORV park, Zufall explained.

"We would eventually like to keep it year around," Zufall said. "We could have snow-cross, anything like that."

Bogs 4 Dogs experienced some growing pains with the switch in the venue, and the competition from other activities, plus the hot weather that kept the spectator count down.

Normally mud bog events do not have the amenities offered at SCR. They are staged in open fields with no seating and porta-potties.

"We offer concessions, seating," Zufall said. "We're working with the insurance company to bring the fans and spectators down closer to the event - bring 'em front row."

Zufall wears a number of hats, and helmets, as he not only manages the ORV facility, but works full time – and also races his yellow Willy's Mega-Truck. If not sitting high in the seat of his truck, he can be spotted in the pits in his crumpled Kenny Chesney-like straw cowboy hat.

The secret to success in mud bogging is simple, Zufall explained.

"Be faster than your competitor," he said. "Horsepower is a big factor, but more important, is getting that horsepower to the ground through traction."

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].