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Chuckwagon Champs Wrap 30th Year

chuckwagonraces.com

Sunday is the final day of the National Championship Chuckwagon Races in Clinton. It’s the event’s 30th anniversary. Peggy Eoff and her husband Dan started the races. She says it all came from an idea for an activity for their Labor Day party.

“That year we had eight teams. We ran horses and mules, whatever anybody had, and then after we had a little race, we sat down and ate, and then we had something to talk about,” Eoff said.

She says the event doubled in size going from 8 to 16 participants the next year. Now it’s a week long event including several concerts. She says a home-town team has won the race six times, but this year, teams from Kansas and Indiana are giving them a run for their money.

“For the Classic, which is the big horse division with wooden-wheeled wagons, a team out of Kansas is in the lead with a 1 minute, 1 second time, which is really fast. The track’s pretty fast this year,” she said.

Eoff says drivers and riders must first load their wagons and hold that load for the entire race in order to finish.

Nathan Vandiver is the former General Manager of UA Little Rock Public Radio.
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