After popping my Mud Run cherry back in 2014, a revisit to the filthy field of dreams was long overdue. I’d spent each of the ensuing years watching the action via social media, staring longingly at the screen like a pre-internet kid at the window on a rainy school holiday. This year, I felt the mud calling me back.

First published in the September 2025 issue of Street Machine

The road trip from Brisbane down to Gloucester, NSW for the 2025 Mud Run was my version of a drag-and-drive adventure, with the straight-line action replaced by paddock-bashing in mud. My better half, Kylie, along with her daughter Bella, were joining me for the trip, and so with the trusty ‘Loose Morals’ Valiant loaded full of warm clothes and tools I hoped not to need, we jammed the tank full of 98 and headed south.

The drive was trouble-free – except for one of the tailpipe brackets tearing out of the floor – and the 750km trip took nine hours, including wee breaks and fuel stops. Lobbing into Gloucester just after dark, we enjoyed a quick Thursday-night feed at the local bowlo before bunking down for a well-earned snooze.

The Friday sunrise treated us Gloucester first-timers to a welcome surprise – it is a little gem of a town that unfolds like a cliché of rolling green hills and picturesque mountain views.

The Mud Run’s traditional home has been East Gresford in the Hunter Region, but the 2024 event was canned at the 11th hour due to some tricky negotiations with the showground committee. Undaunted, event president Joal Butcher, who has been organising The Mud Run since 2012 with a small committee of eight friends, decided to move to new digs.

“After having to cancel last year, the crew jumped in their cruisers and headed west from Newcastle, checking out all the small-town showgrounds hoping to find a nice fit,” Joal explained. “The Gloucester Showground committee were onboard immediately and really took to the idea of the whole event – their president was the bloke in the tractor dressing the track on Saturday! They have welcomed us back for 2026 with open arms, and were rapt with the respect with which their facilities were treated and the good behaviour of the 1500-odd attendees.”

We arrived at the showground just after lunch to find a bustling tent city full of hot rodders, with plenty of weird and wonderful Mud Runners being unloaded or tinkered on. The staging paddock was a mixed bag of automotive creations. Imagine a melding of Mad Max 2 and the demolition derby episode of Happy Days – now you’re starting to get the picture.

My attention was immediately drawn to a wild Austin A30 sedan sporting more rake than Bunnings. The consensus was that this little ’30 was sure to give a new meaning to the term ‘tip-in’. “It’s a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster,” said owner and builder Scott Crain. “The body is a 1954 Austin, and I based its look on the old ‘Gas Chamber’ A30 drag car from the early 70s. The front half of the chassis and suspension is 1948 Ford Prefect, while the remaining chassis and rear end is Datsun 620 ute. It runs a worked 253 backed by a Marketplace Trimatic.”

A few teething problems slowed Scott’s roll, but hopefully time will see him able to properly stretch the Austin’s stumpy legs to a greater degree.

A Friday test ’n’ tune gave each of the ready runners a few laps to wear the circle track in, and it was nice to finally knock some of the rust off my driving skills. I was all arms and elbows for the first set of laps, tromping on and off the pedal like I was playing a bass drum, but I was able to smooth things out during the main sessions the following day with a certain amount of finesse and decent hang time.

The excitement of rolling into the showground on that Saturday morning was hard to top. Idling along behind the condensation-covered twin pipes of an XW GT was a joyous experience, my senses further tickled by the glorious smells of campfires and hot brekkies being made around the packed grounds. Caravans and marquees filled every available piece of useable land. Plenty of rain in the days leading up to the event had rendered some areas uninhabitable, but thankfully, a local farmer threw open the gates to his neighbouring paddock and told the Mud Run crew to stack ’em deep.

After a fairly loose drivers’ briefing, the action got underway, and it was pedal to the metal. The variety of cars is one of the biggest attractions of The Mud Run. Jalopies, hot rods and ex-speedway bangers all looked and sounded the part, while a handful of normally tidy streeters got down and dirty to prove they’re well driven and not hidden.

I was immediately drawn to a rough ’n’ ready black S-Series Valiant with an old race-car vibe and period signwriting. Its owner, Sam Johnson, came upon it by accident. “I was helping an old guy move house and spotted the Valiant hiding in a shed,” he said. “I immediately asked about it, and he said I could have it on the condition that I ‘don’t paint it and don’t fuck with it; just enjoy it’.

“It had sat for 50 years, but we got the slant-six and three-on-the-tree manual going. However, the engine needs some love after sitting for so long. I’ll freshen it up for next year’s event, and I’m curious as to what’s been done to it internally, as it’s pretty toey.”

Nightfall saw a bunch of stayers still lapping the track under the glow of showground lights, with the crisp sound of big revs cutting across the cool night air for miles around. It was the perfect way to wrap up an action-packed day.

From the 70-plus cars in attendance, a top six was chosen according to whose laps exhibited the best mix of style, noise, flair and balls. Of those, it was Corey Mace in his tubbed XP sedan who the audience voted Top Mud Runner.

Sunday morning came around all too quickly. We hit the road back to Brisbane, mud-encrusted but content, proudly wearing the hallmarks of an awesome couple of days fanging cars and hanging with mates both old and new.

HAULING HARDTOP

Simo has owned his VG Valiant hardtop since he was 18, way back in 1991! He turned it into a 13sec, 265-powered hauler, before giving it a revamp in 2023 as ‘Loose Morals’, complete with 318 V8 power and gasser-eque styling.

“The VG did the trip like it was nothing,” said Simo. “And it got me into a few interesting servo conversations along the way. I’m constantly amazed at people in shock that you’d drive an ‘old car’ interstate, let alone wail on it, too. I say life’s too short. Road-tripping an old-school car is great fun, and so cleansing for your soul!”

HIGHLIGHTS:

1. Don’t let the serious rake of Scott Crain’s awesome little Austin A30 fool you; it drove surefooted lap after lap with its 253 combo, and was one of my personal favourites from the event.

2. Andrew Smith of Smiths Kustoms sorts the official Mud Run designs, but he also likes to get in on the action. His 1934 Fargo pick-up has been chopped 3in and channelled over a ’28 Chev chassis, with a twin-Stromberg 202 Holden red for motivation. “Everything held together and it drove great,” Andrew said.

3. Tony ‘Webby’ Webster was the event’s creator way back when and still lends a hand on the committee. His Model A roadster runs a hot Holden six-cylinder, and the street machining tragic in me turned to jelly when I spotted its rocker cover, repurposed from his brother Rex’s ‘High Tech’ FJ (SM, Dec ’86).

4. Gary Nicholson cobbled together this Series One Jag – dubbed ‘Euro Trash’ – with a few of his Moonshine Car Club mates. It doubles as an events mudslinger and a trainee paddock basher for the kids, and runs a 302 Windsor, C6 auto and straight axle.

5. Matt Holmes’s patina-clad wagon was one of a handful of Austin Freeways at the event, and embodied the old-school Mud Run philosophy of ‘collect whatever junk you have lying around and jam a V8 into it’.

6. Mark Taylor’s family-heirloom FX ute is more accustomed to destroying tyres on the burnout pad, but Mark decided to give it a crack in the mud. The humpy runs a full chassis and a blown LS with twin 950s, backed by a Turbo 400 and a 9in nestled in a triangulated four-link rear.

7. One of the toughest-sounding cars was Shane Robertson’s chopped 1930 Ford coupe on ’32 rails. It previously ran with sidevalve power and a five-speed, but that’s been replaced by a 350 Chev and ’Glide that had done duty in Shane’s EH sedan. “It was an eight-week thrash to get it done,” he said.

8. “I built this just for the Mud Run, and, in typical fashion for this event, finished it at dumb o’clock the night before,” said Steve Cap of his EH. The $200 202 and Trimatic combo copped a hiding every run, with Steve using valve bouncing as an effective rev limiter to keep it constantly sideways.

9. Adam Chivers and his dad Gary of Rebel Restoration Services had one of their own projects on track. “We call it ‘Leftovers’ because that is what it was built from,” said Gary. It features an A40 ute chassis, ’65 Viva front end, 1930 Chrysler cowl, Adam-made aluminium hood, and a Hillman donk. The plywood side panels are trimmed in flannelette to suit this year’s ‘black and white’ theme.

10. Sam Johnson’s S-Series Valiant is a genuine ex-speedway banger that had been parked up for 50 years before being resurrected for this year’s Mud Run. In true slant-six style, the engine kicked into life without too much coaxing, but it was feeling the pinch after a heap of laps under Sam’s heavy right foot.