We finally arrived and entering the park was a mud bog in itself. It had been raining all day and we locked the Dodge in four-wheel-drive just to get into our RV spot. As we unloaded race bikes, the scent of rain, mud, burnt oil and race fuel had filled the air. It smelled great and we were all smiles. We suited up in our wet and muddy race duds and were ready to go.
The crowd was huge and Red Creek had done a fine job making it the muddiest race you could ever imagine. I was first to run and got beat out, but glad to make it through without rolling the borrowed bike. Brandon was next and got sent to the trailer as well. David, however, came to win no matter what. Not once, but twice, by driving out of the pit in reverse after getting spun out in the deep slow. The finals in this class proved to be crazy. Robert Keyes, David and John Cannon, all Can-Am riders, were left to battle it out with Robert coming out on top.
I ran the first heat and had everyone by half of the pit. David was up and took his heat by a good margin. By this time the pit was especially nasty and required a few of the large bikes to be towed out. Brandon, David and I lined up together in the modified final. It was funny for a moment, until the flag dropped and it was time to get beat or give a beating. David and I launched off the line spraying NOS while Brandon eased into the pit. The left lane was good but had a huge rut at the beginning, which left Brandon way behind as David and I surged forward. At about the three-quarter mark my bike unexpectedly decided to take a left turn into the wall. Now looking for reverse, Brandon screeched by and took the lead with me right on his tail. David was going nowhere; it seemed the thick mud, NOS and 30-inch tires had wreaked havoc on his belt.
The next morning, we loaded up our stuff and locked the hubs to get out of Red Creek. Before we could get going Dennis Boyd bent a rim on his race trailer. This proved to be yet another Gorilla/Can-Am moment as we took off a spare tire from a Chevy HD to put on a vintage 40-foot fully wrapped Can-Am race trailer, via the help of a side grinder running off a generator. No other mud racing team had ever pulled off a wreck shop like we did and it offered up plenty of problems that we overcame. Racing in two states, at two different events and placing in both events, we didn't do this for fame or fortune, but because we're crazy and love to compete and mud ride.