29th annual Temecula Tractor Race draws fewer than past years

By: BRIAN ECKHOUSE - Staff Writer | Saturday, October 1, 2005 11:18 PM PDT ∞

TEMECULA ---- The caution flag was waved early. On his second lap around the track he helped build, Bob Hoff smashed his tractor into the mud bath and got stuck. Hoff's tractor had to be towed out.

Oh, the perils of tractor racing.

Now in its 29th year, the annual Temecula Tractor Race drew about 500 people by midday Saturday, down sharply from the 30,000 spectators who attended at the height of the event's popularity.

Cult fans and some intrigued first-timers were present Saturday.

"It's dropped off a lot," said Burt Bixby of Orange County, who has been a yearly racer since 1980. "We used to only be able to make a couple of runs because there were 130 drivers; now there's 30."

Event organizer Dave Johnson said he expected a large crowd at one of the event's two days.

The tractor race, which is being held on Riverside County Flood Control land at the intersection of Jefferson Avenue and Cherry Street, concludes today.

Irene Hotchkiss, whose husband Tom was one of the race's founders, cited the area's growth and shifting demographics as reasons for the declining interest.

The first races were held in a different Temecula ---- "it's a city now," Hotchkiss said.

"When we started, everybody knew everybody," she added. "It was something to do because there wasn't a lot to do .... Since Temecula's grown so much, there's not the interest in it that there was."

Mindy Clover of Temecula attended her first tractor race Saturday, but didn't know what to bring.

So she overpacked. She stuffed water bottles for each of her three young children, a beach blanket and a couple of umbrellas into a bag.

"I'm the kind of person that over-prepares. I don't like whining kids, saying, 'Mom, it's too hot,'" Clover said, laughing. "I was hopeful there would be more shade, though they passed out hats, which is impressive."

By midday Saturday, Clover was unsure whether she, her husband and kids would stay for all the races.

"But I need to get my $20 worth," she said.

The kids ---- especially those younger than 13 ---- were enthused.

Several, including 11-year-old Justin Larsen of Orange County, looped their tiny fingers through the wire fence that divided the mud pit from the bales of hay that served as stands. The tractors and trucks circled the quick track before plunging into the 100-foot-long pool of mud.

"You feel like you're a part of it," Larsen said.

Two-year-old Lonnie Ayers was fixated on the tractor races.

"Anything that makes noise, he loves," said his mother, Tammy Ayers of San Jacinto. "He's a total boy."

The adults shared in the fun. Several rebuilt old tractors to suit the race. One driver designed his truck to look like a shark.

"When you were a little kid, didn't you like to play with tractors?" said Todd Wellman of Murrieta. "I did. Kids love it, and they love the mud."

Despite the small crowd, the tractor and truck drivers weren't complaining. As long as there are haulers, a track and a two-foot-deep mud pit, the drivers would still be there, boys just being boys.

"Human nature is .... if there's two, you got to race," he added. "We biked and drag-raced when we were kids; now we do this. I love it."

Crashing into the mud trap exhilarated Kevin Kluzak of Temecula.

"It was like biting a peppermint," said Kluzak, who drove the largest truck of the field, a 700-horsepower International. "It was refreshing."

His pit captain, Ezra Jenkinson, couldn't resist boasting his truck's size and ferocity.

"The other ones, they're just boys pretending to be men," he said. "We're men among boys."

If you go ...

29th annual Temecula Tractor Race

Where: Cherry Street, off Jefferson Avenue

When: 9 a.m. Sunday

What to wear: "Mud duds" if you're racing; something that can get dusty if you're watching

Cost: Adults $8; children 4 to 18 $4; and kids 3 and younger are free

Information: log onto www.tractorrace.com

Contact staff writer Brian Eckhouse at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2626, or beckhouse@californian.com.

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