As Rick Sosebee and I quietly buckled my snoozing son Ryland (still in his pajamas) and camera equipment into the truck on a dark and shivering cold Saturday morning, not even the slightest glimpse of sunlight had yet begun to reveal itself. We'd literally made our decision to tackle the five-hour trek from Atlanta, Georgia, to Dozier, Alabama, to document the first round of the 2010 Championship Mud Racing (CMR) series just before lights out the previous night. About an hour into this miserable drive, I turned to Rick and admitted, "I'm just not excited about this one." The last round of the 2009 series ended on a bad note, with low attendance and a partnering promotional company that let down both racers and the CMR organization with a lack of funds to properly cover the winnings of those who earned anAd deserved it and, as a result, it seemed many, if not most, of the dedicated racers did not plan to return for 2010. I was deeply concerned that we might be the only ones ready to kick off the mud season!
Halfway through our drive, just when we expected the sun to finally make its anticipated appearance, Mother Nature began unleashing what felt like bucket-sized drops of rain. "Turn this truck around and let's get back home" were the words on the tip of my tongue, when all of a sudden the rain came to a halt and my mood quickly began improving. Although it was still a bit overcast and fairly cold, we finally arrived to what seemed like an off-road enthusiast's dream location, the Southern Ridge ATV Trails. To my surprise, a solid showing of attendees packed into the park and were gearing up to tackle the trails and preparing for the afternoon Swamp Cross competition. Within minutes of our unloading the truck, an orange ray of light broke from the dark clouds to cast itself over the faces of the attendees and blanket the Swamp Cross course. The sun had finally arrived, and it looked as if all of the ingredients required for making this event one worthy of attending were finally beginning to fall into place.
As Rick took off with camera in hand and Ryland and I made our way around the park, I came across familiar faces, but the gathering crowd was mostly made up of ones that I'd never met previous to the day. Everyone's spirits seemed positive, which was very different from the final round I attended at the end of last season. Just like any race series, growing pains are a part of it all and trials and tribulations are to be expected. Personally, I was anxious and hoping that things would get off to a great start in 2010 and that this sport would continue to gain momentum and spread eastward as it had the previous two years. The CMR's president, Kevin Palmer, decided during the off-season that changes for 2010 were in order and one of them would be that the entire series would be held in the southeastern states such as Alabama, South Carolina and Florida. From the CMR's inception, the majority of racers were attending from states as far away as Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi where many of the CMR events were held, and traveling to the eastern states created many challenges for them. "Moving the series to only southeastern states will open up this type of competition to a whole new region of racers," Palmer explained. It looked as if the changes to the schedule were already having a positive effect, and a whole new crop of mud racer was showing up ready to compete. "We also wanted to bring back the fun of it all," Palmer claimed, referring to the 2010 season. So far, things seemed to be on track and proved that the CMR is alive and well.