Strathmore havoc racer to showcase in Dubai

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A Strathmore local is taking to the sands of Dubai, having accepted an invitation to race as part of the Liwa International Festival. 

The event launched Dec. 12 and will run until Jan. 3, 2026, taking place in Al Dhafra, Abu Dhabi. Josh Hall explained he is taking place as part of the Axlebusters Racing Team, which makes up three of the eight attending teams. 

“Mudfest is the production company that was offered these contracts through this festival, and … I guess the whole thing is basically the royal family in Dubai or EAU, one of them is paying for this whole festival and it has been going on since the early 2000’s,” said Hall. “Sometimes they bring acts from overseas, like Monster Jam is there this time with us, so we are kind of like a sideshow act with them.”

Hall explained his, as well as his team’s vehicles – each being approximately 8,000-pound trucks, had to be flown to the venue well in advance of the start of the festival. Likewise, they will return to Canada the same way upon its conclusion. 

He added Mudfest had been contacted to put a team together for the Liwa Festival through their online presence, posting records of past racing events on platforms such as YouTube. 

“It’s havoc-style racing. They are big thousand-horsepower trucks with big tires on them and we climb hills, do jumps through the mud, all sorts of – it’s like your redneck mud truck except taken to a thousand, cranked all the way up,” said Hall. “It’s pretty extreme offroad racing. Usually for something like this there would be a trophies and stuff, but I think, as I am to believe, we are going more of as an act like the monster trucks (to) put on a show.”

The idea for the festival will be to get through their leg of the festival without accidentally flipping the trucks, lighting them on fire, or otherwise destroying them. Otherwise, the teams are a long way from home and their regular maintenance trailers.

More typical racing events regularly take place within Alberta, as well as in Kelowna, Dawson Creek, at Mudfest, and at several venues throughout the United States. 

“I’ve competed in southern California, Idaho, and Pennsylvania. I’ve been in all sorts of different places and I thought I’d pretty much reached the pinnacle as far as I could take the sport, and then I was sitting in bed and I got a call from a friend (asking) if I had ever thought about racing in Dubai,” added Hall. “This opportunity just popped up, and all the parts fell into place and away we go. I flew out on Sunday (Dec. 14).”

A future aspiration of Hall’s would be to potentially see his type of racing able to be hosted at the Strathmore Ag Society grounds, or a venue close to home.

With millions of dollars’ worth in trucks and equipment gathering in one place to put on such an event, Hall said he feels it would be an excellent opportunity to gather a crowd, put on something unique, and contribute to the local community.

“I would like to see if it’s feasible and then I’d have to gather up some sponsors. As far as the work, (we’d) need a bulldozer and a swing hoe to make the obstacles and then tear them down again. Maybe a local company would want to jump on,” he said. “It’s always better when you have natural terrain so we will go somewhere that has big mountains and hills and rocks and stuff, but we do have events like, basically you start with a flat field and you have to dig a big hole and then the dirt from that hole creates jumps, and you can fill it with water and old tires.”

The Liwa International Festival hosts traditional sports such as falcon racing, as well as its host of motorsport events throughout the course of the event, with an estimated more than 100,000 people attending.