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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

Patrons call Truck Mud Run at 2007 Monroe County Fair a success

Promoter says muddy event held on Saturday a 'good all-around family sport'

Chris Pickrell

The 2007 Monroe County Fair kicked off with the Truck Mud Run at 7 p.m. on Saturday in the Grandstand area of the Fairgrounds.\nThe event was promoted by Paul Karch, owner of Extreme Performance of Evansville.\nThe race began with nine competitors in the mud sling, a Class Six event open to all participants. A mud sling is a competition in which entrants race one-by-one in high-performance vehicles down a mud track. The winner is the competitor with the fastest time.\nGary Hoy, who placed fourth in the class, was the first competitor to go. He revved his engine and pulled up to the starting line slowly, timing his takeoff. Spectators waited with anticipation as they cheered for Hoy to pull off down the 150-foot track.\nThen, with eardrum-shaking revving, Hoy took off and flung the fresh, wet mud into a huge tarp blocking the fence behind him. The crowd cheered loudly as the first race kicked off.\nRichie Bryant, 10, of Solsberry, Ind., attended the event with his father, John. Richie said when the mud hit the tarp, he “thought that was pretty cool.”\n“I really liked it,” Richie Bryant said, “mostly because they sling the mud and most of the cars have NOS.”\nNOS, or nitrous oxide, increases a vehicle’s horsepower and torque so that the high-performance vehicle can have increased speed.\nAaron Baker of Salem, Ind., said he has been racing in mud slings for eight years.\n“People love it for the loud noise,” he said. “That’s the main reason.”\nThe smell of gas and oil filled the air as the race continued and the crowd stood up to cheer each competitor. The revving of an engine could be felt in one’s chest with each new run.\nKarch said this was his company's fourth year doing the event.\n“Anybody can take their old pickup truck and come and play,” Karch said. “You don’t have to be real talented to compete in this sport.”\nSome vehicles, Karch said, had $30,000- to $40,000-worth of high-performance parts. Others had minimums of $4,000 in parts.\n“It’s just a good all-around family sport,” Karch said. “Anybody can bring their stock truck in here or highly modified four-wheel drive and sling a little dirt and have fun at the fair.”\nThe event lasted late into the evening as the Grandstand stadium area filled with hundreds of patrons throughout the five-hour event.\nMary Suriago, Karch’s mother-in-law, was in charge of collecting money in the pit area. While Suriago, who is from Spencer, Ind., said she is not an ardent fan of the sport, she still found herself yelling encouraging words to a racer.\n“I would like to drive it one time,” she said. “I don’t think I’d win, but I’d give him a run for his money though.”

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