As temperatures rise and home owners around the country prepare their lawn mowers for another summer of tedious clipping and mulching, I’ve found new perspective.
Until recently, I considered my yard simply a patch of grass perpetually in need of a trim. Now I imagine it as a track to be conquered, a race to be won, a course filled with tight turns and full-throttle straights better suited for Jimmie Johnson than John Deere. Unless, of course, my wife is watching.
Like most of the rank-and-file inhabit- ants of Mowtown, cutting the grass has always been high on my “to-do” list. It just never earned a place on my “want to-do” list. Everything changed when I met a group of motorsports en- thusiasts more in tune with their need for speed than their need to seed.
Offered an opportunity to try the quirky sport of lawn mower rac- ing, I shook off my preconceptions, strapped on a helmet, said my prayers and enjoyed an exhilarating ride aboard a contradiction on wheels. It seems these modified “lawn mowers” cut quite a path on the track but can’t be counted on to cut a single blade of grass. That’s because — to answer a frequently asked question — the blades and mowing decks are re- moved before they ever hit the track.
THE ROOTS OF THE SPORT Negatively tainted by years of boring
lawn mowing, I couldn’t help but wonder what could possibly motivate someone over the age of 10 to jump
on an old grass cutter just for fun. But every journey begins with the first step, so I turned to the Internet. As is often the case, credit (blame?) for this racing phenomenon is up for debate. It appears that the sport’s oldest gov- erning body, the British Lawn Mower Racing Association (BLMRA), has been hosting sanctioned events since 1973. On the other hand, the good folks of Twelve Mile, Indiana, held their first lawn mower race 10 years earlier, and they’ve been hosting the Twelve Mile 500 every Independence Day since.
No matter who came up with the idea to turn mowers into racing machines, the lure of the sport is rarely debated among enthusiasts. For most, it’s the perfect combination of speed and affordability.
“Folks love to race, but they also have a limited budget,” says Aaron Crowl, president of the American Racing Mower Associa- tion (ARMA), one of two prominent national sanc- tioning bodies. “This is the most economical form of motorsports. Heck, for $300, you could be the class of your field.”
Bruce Kaufman, president of the U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association,
wholeheartedly agrees. “It’s the most affordable thing going. Half the fun is finding an old mower out behind the barn and building one of these machines yourself. It’s awesome. From juniors to stock to major modified, there’s a place for every person and every budget.”
Most racers start at the local level, and for me it was the Northwestern Michigan Fair, held each August near Traverse City, Michigan. After church one Sunday, I overheard a couple of teenagers talking about an upcom- ing race, so I asked how I could get involved. As it turned out, it only took a phone call, and I quickly learned that no one participates in this sport for fame or fortune, just fun and friendly competition — and an occasional lawn gnome or equally desirable prize.
“We never race for money, and I don’t think it’ll ever be more than that,” says local race organizer Wayne Strang. “Money changes things. You com- mercialize it and you lose a lot of the people — the kind of people who started it in the first place. This sport is like a family; everybody helps each other out. Winning is a bonus.”
It was trial by fire for this rookie, which meant every word of advice from guys like Greg Town (blue shirt) was valuable. I was involved only in practice runs, so the other drivers took it easy on me, but once the races started (far right), it was pedal to the metal. One of my advisers, Daniel Amrhein (top right), won twice.
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