Festival wraps up with races, mud bog

By SCOTT POWELLLedger Staff Writerspowell@gaffneyledger.com

There will be a lot of mudslinging Saturday when the South Carolina Peach Festival holds a mud bog at Orchard Park at 7 p.m.

The event features a 250-footlong mud pit and cash prizes for 4wheel enthusiasts who can survive the challenge. About 80 participants have modified their 4-wheel drive trucks with bigger engines and lighter weights hoping for an advantage in the competition.

“Mud bogs have been held for 30 years. It’s a growing sport. We are seeing more and more trucks enter the events every year,” said Johnny Brown, who is helping with the event and attends mud bogs on a monthly basis. “It’s just a bunch of grown men having fun playing in the mud. The drivers are really competitive. In the modified class, some of the 4-wheel drive trucks will sling mud as high as a telephone pole while traveling through the mud pit.”

Tickets for the mud bog are $5 and will be sold at the gates, which open at 6 p.m.

Participants will compete in street stock, modified stock and modified 4-wheel drive truck classes.

Registration is from 5 until 6 p.m. at the site. Anyone not registering during that time frame will not be eligible to race.

More than 3,000 people attended the mud bog when the festival last held the event in 1999.

“Everybody has been asking us to bring it back,” festival board member Merv Bishop said. “There was good attendance when we held the event before. We hope we will have a good turnout this year.”

The mud bog is one of several sporting events that will be held during the festival’s final weekend. The annual hill fall will be held Sunday at noon at Limestone College.

About 200 runners are expected to participate in day and evening road races Saturday at Limestone College. The traditional 1K and 5K races will begin at 7 a.m. A 10K night race, sponsored by Upstate Carolina Medical Center, has been added at 7 p.m.

“We wanted to do something new and challenging for our runners. There are not many races in July because of the heat,” race organizer Carlton Bridges said. “In talking with Gaffney runners, we asked them when they run? People usually run either early in the morning or after work. We are excited about the addition of a night race and believe it will help our event grow.”

Runners can register for the race Friday at the Holiday Inn Express from noon until 6 p.m.

The festival has scheduled the races so runners participating in the morning 5K race will have time to recover before the 10K race, Bridges said. Chiropractor Dr. Victor Locklear and massage therapist Chasity Brooks Wiggins will be available to assist runners.