Town’s final piece of advice was specif- ic to the orange and green Craftsman he let me borrow. “This thing can be a little touchy. Don’t push the clutch in all the way or you’ll pop the belt.” No problem, I thought, and with a confident thumbs-up I put the mower in gear and drove a hair-raising 10 feet before popping the belt. I guess it wouldn’t have been so bad if A) Every person there hadn’t already stopped to watch how the rookie would do, and B) Town and his crew didn’t have to make me climb off so they could turn the mower on its side to fix it. Once I’d finally figured out what I was
doing, it was time to get comfortable. I’d been told that factory stock mow- ers normally top out at 7–8 mph, but by simply changing pulleys, tighten- ing belts and experimenting with tire sizes, these racing machines reach speeds of 30–40 mph. The increase in speed was obvious. As Amrhein had suggested, out on the oval track I leaned hard into the corners, but after starting with both hands on the steering wheel, I realized it was more effective — and a lot more fun — to drive with my right hand, grab the back fender with my left, slide my rear end half off the seat and hang as far
to the inside of the track as possible, kind of like a monkey dangling from a tree branch. But since the track is watered down prior to each race, and water plus dirt equals mud, the farther I leaned, the more mud flew into my face. Problem? Hardly. For a wannabe who had only dreamed of getting dirty on a race track, it felt like manna from heaven.
Though I stuck to pre-race practices, my confidence rose and I decided to kick it up a notch. Of course, at that very moment reality slapped me across the face and I popped the belt again.
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