If you've landed here thinking this is about a lot of fit people chasing each other over some sort of obstacle course, then sorry, it's not that type of Mud Run. Nope, it's kind of the opposite.
Yep, we're talking hot rods and other insane contraptions fanging it around a dirt track. In this first instalment of Kustom Kreatures, the owner of Lucky's Speed Shop, Ben Erdahl and I pull up the anchor on his 1967 Cadillac Eldorado land yacht and, along with a thousand other hot rodders, descend on the tiny NSW town of Gresford for the 2017 Mud Run.
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Yes, about a thousand wild-eyed people turn up to the Mud Run to gawk and take part, but nine years ago it started out with just four mates from the Devils Hot Rod Club doing skids in a paddock. It wasn't even an event at that point but it outgrew the venue fast before moving to Gresford Showground where it was at first an invite-only affair, before the gates were thrown open to the rest of the world in 2015.
Each year you'll find the Mud Run's three overlords in their usual posts – Joal Butcher is the starter guy with the chequered flag down in the mud; Stewart (Soup) Campbell sells the race licences at the merch window; and you'll find Tony 'Webby' Webster everywhere from the front gate, letting people in, to the back gate, keeping people out.
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Rules are simple: drive what you bring as long as it's a hot rod or a pre-1969 car with a period racecar style. You'll need a helmet and seat belts, too. Apart from that, go for it. It's a bit of a homage to where hot rodding began and the jalopy race at the end is the closest and most hilarious recreation of those early years.
Ben is usually our Kustom Kreatures tour guide, but with him being a Mud Run virgin, and this my fifth time to Gresford, it was my turn to show him around.
I'm mates with the Devils and it's a bit of a family reunion day, literally – three generations of my family were at the Mud Run this year. This meant doing chores, such as working on the front gate before we could go out and get the Eldorado dirty.
Would you prefer to run 10km through an obstacle course in the mud or lose the back end of your car in the dirt at a showground somewhere in country NSW? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.
