TORRINGTON – Valley Motor Sports held the Big Gun Shootout Saturday and the event drew local and out-of-state participants alike.
Wayne Glasgow maybe had the farthest trip to compete in the Big Gun Shootout, coming from Arizona. The Casper native moved to White Hills, Ariz. to avoid Wyoming winters, but he still finds time to come to this region during the summer to compete in mud racing. He takes a couple weeks each summer to string together a series of mud races in the region.
“You can’t sit in front of the TV – you will just get old and die,” said Glasgow, who has been mud racing for five years. “You have to keep doing this stuff as long as you can get up and walk around.”
Last weekend, Glasgow won both the pro-stock and pro-mod classes in Blackfoot, Idaho. On Friday, he competed in the Built Ford mud bog at the Scotts Bluff County Fair, coming in second.
In Torrington on Saturday, Glasgow took third in the pro-stock class in his truck “Anti-Mud Matter.” He plans to compete in Hemingford, Neb. this weekend before heading back to Arizona.
“It’s about getting dirty and trying to be the guy to the other end first and hope for a payday,” Glasgow, who used to compete in drag racing with a pro-mod car, said.
Butch Hollibaugh, who has been in mud racing for 10 years, was another out-of-state competitor to make his way to Torrington, coming from Chadron, Neb. As a driver in the outlaw or open class, Hollibaugh said that it is hard for him to find mud racing events that have a class his rail car fits in.
A truck driver by day, Hollibaugh is no stranger to making road trips for races on the weekend. The trip to Torrington was one of Hollibaugh’s shortest trips of the summer. He said he often travels 500-600 miles for a weekend event. Saturday was the first time that Hollibaugh competed at the complex in Torrington.
“There’s cars here that are over 2,000 horse power and you don’t get to see that every day so come see it,” Hollibaugh said. “Watching it on TV is great, but it’s not the same. Not until you get to smell the fuel and actually hear the cars and feel the cars take your air out of your lungs – then you appreciate it.”
During his first run Saturday, Hollibaugh’s car jogged to the side and he collided with a barricade, but he walked away safely.
“I’m just happy if the car starts and we have a good safe pass,” Hollibaugh said in an interview before the race. “In what we do, there is a danger involved. As long as at the end of the day I am able to put it back in the trailer and I go home, I’m good.”
On top of drawing a crowd from around the country, Torrington has several local competitors that keep the sport alive in the county. The Big Gun Shootout was the third of four events that Valley Motor Sports hosted in Torrington this summer. On top of competing in Torrington, many people from the area compete in other events around the region.
Jesse Lay has been mud racing in Torrington for two years. On Saturday, he competed in the super stock class, but was unable to reach the podium. He also competed in the mud bogs Friday in Mitchell, Neb. for the Scotts Bluff County Fair, where he posted a solid time. Lay said his main goal is to just have fun in the mud.
“I think the only reason you want to win is because you get to race more,” Lay said. “Really I just come out to have fun, me personally.”
Casey Schwartzkopf, who has been mud racing for four years, also races in the events in Torrington, although he didn’t Saturday because he runs in the sportsman class and that wasn’t offered this past weekend. He did compete in the mud bogs Friday in Mitchell and finished toward the middle of the pack.
“The environment is awesome,” Schwartzkopf said of mud racing. “It’s a great group of friends and you get to hang out with everyone and just have fun. Competition is fun too, obviously, but it’s just fun to hang out with a bunch of people you get along with.”
As mentioned, Saturday was the third of four events this summer hosted in Torrington by Valley Motor Sports. The final event of the summer is the Solar Eclipse Bog and Drag set for Aug. 19 in Torrington.
Results from the Big Gun Shootout are as follows:
Open Outlaw –1, Tom Derr, Rawlins; 2, Rusty Catlin, Colorado; 3, Brad Humpal, Gillette.
Pro-Stock –1, Scott Sierz, Evansville; 2, Gaylon Russell, Douglas; 3, Wayne Glasgow, White Hills, Ariz.
Pro-Mod – 1, Matthew Cearns, Torrington, 2, Brad Humpal, Gillette; Michael Cearns, Torrington.
Super Stock –1, Bill Wells, Douglas; 2, Justin Killion, Wheatland; 3, Rusty Gurney, Torrington.
