Catching some serious air climbing out of a pit, Loren Kuipers was determined to beat his buddy’s time around the new obstacle course at the annual Mountain Mud Festival Saturday.
He had no chance as the Jeep he was driving slammed into the ground smashing the rig’s oil filter and housing. The damage didn’t stop there. Kuipers and his friend, Cal Shores, both of Scio, grinned broadly as they explored the damage, finding a broken radiator and shocks. Shores accused Kuipers of wrecking the steering too.
“We’ll fix it,” Shores said.
“I fixed it to get it there,” Kuipers said. “I gave him a hard time about braking the jeep every time he drove it. I get in. I catch air and I really break it.”
Kuipers was trying to beat Shores’ time around the obstacle course, a new feature for the Mountain Mud Festival.
Shores had finished it in about 1:40, Kuipers said. Most were finishing between 1:40 to 1:50.
“He was supposed to beat my time, but he didn’t,” Shores said mischievously turning to Kuipers. “You’re a loser.”
The stunt pretty much finished Kuipers’ and Shores’ day behind the wheel.
“We busted the oil filter off, busted the housing,” Kuipers said. “It was a lot of fun.”
It was crowded, Kuipers said, but he had a good time.
He and Shores spent the first part of the day in the bogs, and the hill climb was “okay.”
Kuipers used to go regularly to the Foster Mud Flat Races. Those were shut down by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last year.
He likes the new site, he said. “I would have liked it better with rain, but it’s all right.”
Larry Kelley of Salem got stuck near the end of the obstacle course in a pit filled with water. The pit was invisible on the other side of a small hill.
“I wish I would’ve known,” Kelley said. “I would’ve hit it a lot harder.”
He was able to squirrel his way out of the hole, but the driver behind him had no luck. Fortunately a crew was standing by to pull unfortunates out of the way opening the way for a line of rigs that easily climbed their way into and out of the hole.
Nearby, a driver hit the top of a bowl at 30 to 35 mph dropping down, landing his rig on its nose and injuring a passenger.
Randy Jones of Sweet Home watched as a woman was bounced out of her seat into the vehicle’s roll bar.
It stayed on its nose for about three seconds, Jones said. A girl in the back bounced up and hit her head on the roll bar. Another of the four persons in the vehicle was ejected.
Jones said the girl was not belted in.
She was transported by Sweet Home paramedics.
In the mud bogs, Randy and Gracie Bell of Yamhill were busy trying to get their vehicle out of the mud. Covered in mud, Randy was busy hooking it up to another truck for a lift out of the mud.
Joe Talbog of Vancouver stood atop his four-wheel drive taking pictures. He was out of action after tipping his rig back on the hill climb above the bog.
As he neared the top of the hill, his vehicle flipped almost all the way back.
“I thought I was going over,” Talbog said. “I couldn’t believe it. I was like ‘Oh, my …. I’m going.'”
He drove it out but “I dumped transmission fluid all over the place,” Talbog said. “I just wish I wouldn’t have broken it so fast.”
He was done at about 11 a.m.
On account of the nice weather, the South Santiam Four-Wheelers Association, which hosts the event, had to truck in water for the drag strip and other features.
The bogs stayed pretty wet, Lauradelle Johnson said, and the obstacle course was a big hit.
“Once people got over that way to see what’s going on, there’s been a lot of traffic that way.”