BLOOMFIELD CHUCKWAGON RACES GET OFF TO MUDDY START

BLOOMFIELD -- Sam Hale took off his muck-splattered, yellow raincoat and wiped the mud from his face, replacing it with a broad grin.

He had just completed racing his chuckwagon around a barrel-marked, muddy grass course Saturday afternoon at Holly Ridge Ranch.

His rubber-tired, lightweight chuckwagon was pulled by two small mules. Hale lives in Wappapello. He and his team compete as the "Wild Onion Bunch" on the Arkansas Chuckwagon Racing Association circuit.

On Saturday, his team included Jeremy Crouse and Nick Carter of Benton, Ark.

Hale was the only Missourian entered in Saturday's chuckwagon races. Most of the participants came from Arkansas where chuckwagon racing has a strong following.

This is the third year for the chuckwagon races at Holly Ridge Ranch near Bloomfield. The ranch hosts the only sanctioned chuckwagon races in Missouri.

Nearly 70 teams competed this year. A small crowd turned out for Saturday's competition, including two tour buses from Arkansas.

Ranch owner Carla Moore blamed the rainstorm for keeping attendance down.

The two-day competition concludes today with the racing finals in eight classes of chuckwagons, ranging from the 46-inch mule and pony classes to the buckboard and classic wagon classes.

As for Hale, he's hooked on chuckwagon racing. "This is my third year of racing," said Hale. Like other competitors, the rain Saturday didn't dampen his spirits. Hale said he enjoys the competition and the friendships that develop on the racing circuit.

Chuckwagon racing resembles a mad scramble. At the sound of a gun, cowboys rush into action. One team member holds the horses while others hurl a bedroll and a wooden box into the wagon.

Once loaded, each wagon charges around a set of barrels and out onto the track at breakneck speed.

Each race involves two teams or in some cases a single team, which competes against the clock.

Each team has a driver, a "cook" and an outrider.

The outriders start from a dismounted position. Then, they jump on their horses and race to catch up with the speeding chuckwagons.

Moore said she and her husband, Jerry, saw their first chuckwagon race four years ago in Clinton, Ark. They decided to bring chuckwagon racing to their ranch, where they also hold rodeos during the summer months.

"It is something different," she said. "It is part of the Old West."

Chuckwagons originally served as the portable kitchen for cowboys on cattle drives. Unlike the original wagons, the racing wagons aren't packed full of supplies.

For 11-year-old Nick Carter, Saturday's race was his first. He served as "cook," riding out the race along side Hale, who drove the "Wild Onion Bunch" chuckwagon.

By the time the race was over, Carter was covered in mud. "It was fun," he said after showering off. Carter's father, Kenny, is a friend of Hale's.

Carter admitted to being nervous before the race. "It's exciting, especially the first time you do it."

"When it is real muddy, you don't want to have your mouth open," he said. "There are a lot of bumps."

Hampered by a hand injury, Kenny Carter didn't compete Saturday. He and his team were Arkansas state champions in the classic wagon class last year. Classic wagons are 1,000-pound covered wagons.

A truck mechanic, Kenny Carter has raced for about five or six years. Carter said chuckwagon competitors do it for the fun, not the money.

Unlike rodeos, there is little prize money in chuckwagon racing. Winners and runnersup at the Holly Ridge Ranch races will receive belt buckles specially made for the event.

Like rodeos, chuckwagon racing can be a rough sport, particularly if a rider is thrown from his horse. Three years ago, an outrider was killed in a racing accident at the ranch.

Lesser injuries are part of chuckwagon-racing life, as they are in any sport. But Carter, Hale and others say the good outweighs the bad.

For them, it's a race worth running just for the fun of it.

If you go

What: Holly Ridge Ranch chuckwagon races

When: Finals start at 1 p.m. today.

Where: Holly Ridge Ranch off Highway E, half a mile east of the Highway 25 intersection at Bloomfield.

Admission: $5 for adults and $3 for children. Children under 5 admitted free.