Gumboro Mudbog "Support For The Wounded Soldiers At Walter Reed Hospital"

There will be more photos and video later today of the charity event from the Gumboro Mudbog yesterday.

GUMBORO -- An estimated 2,000 people drove their souped-up trucks, four-wheelers or just everyday cars to the small town of Gumboro on Saturday to watch mud fly at the Gumboro Mud Bog.

As one of the four events held in Gumboro this year, volunteer Allen Jones said it's amazing to see how much it's grown in its seven years of existence.

"Sometimes you just sit back and remember when there was 50, 60 people here," he said. "Now, you see (thousands)."

Saturday's race was Gumboro Mud Bog's annual charity event, which organizer Ray Ellis said was likely the big reason for the huge draw. All money collected from Saturday's $7 admission will be donated this Christmas to the soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

While the attendance numbers may have been given a boost by the charity drive, longtime mud bogger Wesley Townsend of Crisfield said interest in the sport has been on the rise. Townsend also races at a track in his hometown.

"From the looks of the crowd here and the looks of the crowd in Crisfield, it looks like everybody wants (mud bogging) to come back," he said. "It just keeps getting bigger and bigger."

Townsend started racing in the late 1980s when the sport was at a peak in popularity. At the time, he said there were five different mud bog venues on the Eastern Shore. Interest and participation dropped in the 1990s, but has started to pick up again recently, he said.

"I was into it in the late '80s, early '90s, but then got away from it and grew up," he said. "Then my nephew brought me back and the bug bit me ... again."

Gumboro Mud Bog features three 200-foot pits designed for the seven different classes of trucks racing. According to Ellis, the objective of the race is to be the fastest in the class to drive completely through the pit.

If no one reaches the end, the truck that achieved the longest distance is crowned champion.

The classes are determined by the truck and tire size. Ellis said tires typically range from the common 31-inch tire to a tractor tire.

Although the Gumboro Mud Bog is organized by Ellis, it was truly created by his two sons.

"(Ray's son) and his friends wanted to see who had the baddest truck, so they built a pit," he said. "Well, the pit got bigger and the pit got longer. Every weekend, they would come and more buddies would want to try it out. It just kept bigger and bigger."

Eventually crowds started trickling in, and the rest is history.

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