'It's a blast': Lipton hosts annual mud bog event

The roar of truck engines and geysers of mud spraying in all directions marked the return of Lipton’s annual mud bogging event on June 1.

The mud bogs feature 4x4’s of all shapes and sizes traveling through water filled ditches in an off-roading style drag race.

More photos documenting the chaos on the course can be viewed at the bottom of this story.

(Courtesy: Christina Chick Photography)

The most powerful trucks feature nitrous oxide injection – with their engines producing more than 1,000 horsepower.

Even with all that horsepower, the prospect of getting stuck is still a risk. A tractor stood by to tow any unlucky competitors back to dry land.

An unlucky driver is helped out of the bog by a waiting tractor. (Gareth Dillistone / CTV News)

Many of the competitor’s vehicles may have once been legal and licensed to drive on provincial roads, but that’s not the case anymore.

“Some of them are plate-able, but the tires are the biggest thing with this event,” organizer Darrell Sabiston said. “We mostly use Super Swamper tires, and anything that just a normal tire wouldn’t go ten feet.”

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Kevin Mcelree was one of the more than 20 competitors who took part in the mud-caked spectacle.

“Ya get to bag the livin’ heck out of a vehicle, drive it through the mud pit. Get muddy, splashes, a big crowd. It’s a blast, ya can’t do that anywhere else,” he said.

“Ya go to somebody’s farm, you’re gonna get in trouble for doing that. So, where else can you go and have this much fun without anybody gettin’ mad at ya?”

Hundreds of spectators filled the town of 300 in anticipation of the annual attraction.

The championship race in the stock category featured a mother facing off against her son.

The town is set to host another mud bog event in October.

Lipton is located 90 kilometres northeast of Regina.

--With files from Gareth Dillistone.