East Milton is the home of a racing venue in Santa Rosa County, but it’s pretty dirty. The races are clean but the winding dirt track through puddles of water is anything but clean. The place was the Down to Earth mud track and Saturday was the inaugural event for mud truck races at 8860 Rooster Run Drive off of Jeff Ates Road. David Phillips opened the track with his wife, Sharen, as a culmination of over 30 years in mud racing.
The temperature threatened to breech 100 degrees as did the humidity, but looking out over the track, David Phillips estimated between 1,200 and 1,500 people showed up for the race. He said about 20 plus trucks entered the event in the open, super limited small block, street stock, modified, and super modified classes. The races were single lap with Komatsu tractors equipped with tires in front and winches in back to flip, push, and pull downed trucks. It looked like the risk was worth it for the Milton native. Phillips said before the race, “It was a big gamble, but I know it will pay off.”
Phillips said he’s been involved in mud racing since the 80s in Navarre and other places. Some names he believed readers would recognize are “Southern, Laurel Hill, Bottoms Up, and Warrior River.” With a passion for racing, Phillips said he wanted to bring his spirit home and after getting input from other local enthusiasts made the big decision to create Down to Earth Racing and dig the track. Phillips said he was “blessed by the good Lord” to be able to finish the track and did so “with a lot of friends and cleared a lot of hurdles.”
Phillips said he had racers from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas as well as here in Florida. “It tells you about the need for this in the area,” he said. Jamie Spillers raced in the open, modified, and super modified classes coming all the way from Louisiana. Spillers said he runs on a horseshoe track in Louisiana and has raced with the American Mud Racing Association (AMRA). Spillers said he saw mud racing as a child and wanted to race since then. He described mud racing as “you go 300 feet, throw a blanket on the windshield, and turn left.” Spillers went on to win his first race at Down to Earth.
Phillips said he’s planning on four races this year with a full racing schedule planned for next year.
Keep up with dates and times of future races by visiting www.allaboutdirt.net or looking them up on Facebook at Down To Earth Mud Racing. For those who attended, be sure to share pictures either on the Santa Rosa Press Gazette Facebook page or tag us on Instagram using #socialsantarosa where photos will appear on the Social Santa Rosa section of www.srpressgazette.com.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: East Milton track holds first mud truck races