Families help drive Naples’ swamp buggy racing tradition

NAPLES, Fla. — For more than 70 years, swamp buggy racing has been a Naples tradition, drawing families back to Florida Sports Park for a sport that is equal parts speed, mud and local history.

Drivers race custom-built swamp buggies around the Mile-O-Mud, a figure-eight track filled with about 2 feet of water. The buggies can hit roughly 60 to 80 miles per hour, turning the race into what one driver described as a sport unlike anything else.

“It's absolutely unique just to Southwest Florida,” said river Tyler Johns. “It's a drag race, it's a boat race, it's an off-road race, all combined into one.”

For many of the racers, the tradition is about more than just competition. It is something passed through families.

Steve Mogle, a first-generation racer, said his team name, Family Time, reflects what matters most to him.

“Time spent with family is the most important thing. That quality time. My wife, my nephews, my sons, you know, the husbands, the wives, everybody’s involved,” Mogle said. “We have a huge crew out here. It takes an army to do it.”

Mogle said he hopes his sons will eventually follow him into the sport.

“Somebody’s gotta carry the torch,” he said.

That same family thread runs through the Johns team.

Lorrie Johns, Tyler’s mother, said she did not originally plan to become a driver when her family got into the sport. She said her family built her a buggy and pushed her to race it.

“I kept saying, I’m not gonna drive it, and then he just said, ‘Get in and drive it,’” Johns said. “So it kind of just went from there.”

Tyler said his father first raced in the 1970s before the family returned to the sport in the early 2000s. Johns said working on the buggies has become part of the bond.

“It gets passed down,” he said. “We would work every weekend on them, it’s bonding for us, too.”

Eddie Chesser knows that history as well as anyone.

Chesser is the reigning champion and winningest driver in the sport. He said swamp buggy racing has been in his family for decades. He said his father and uncle helped shape what the sport became as it evolved from hunting buggies into purpose-built race machines.

“He was the godfather of swamp buggy racing, my Uncle Leonard,” Chesser said. “So, I beat his record, he had 26. Now I got 29.”

For racers and fans in Naples, that family connection is part of what has kept swamp buggy racing going for generations, and why they believe it will keep going.

The last race of the season was on April 4.