It's too long and convoluted a story to tell how my Wife and I recently found ourselves at a relatively local lawn mower racing event, but there we were and here I am now to blog about it.
Lawn mower racing. Go ahead and say it, "Okay, here's a rednecky sport that had to be invented by a bunch of Coors Light swillin' good ol' boys not rich or talented enough to drive in Nascar."
You'd think so, but you'd be wrong.
Invented as a competitive motorsports event in Great Britain (of all places), it's grown in popularity in the States and even has a national governing body, the U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association.
This particular GRASCAR event was held on a city owned lot on Route 66. Admission was free, they charged $10 to race, $5 for a pit pass, and a local burger joint had their mobile kitchen there to serve up sumptuous onion fried burgers to the hungry lawn mowing masses. It was a family friendly affair, no alcohol sold or served however there were quite a few tailgaters present that brought their own refreshments.
I'm not sure the event we attended was a sanctioned race by the USLMRA, but there were actual rules and categories/classes that were being adhered to, and the safety measures taken were respectful of the speeds that these ex-grass munchers could attain.
Don't believe me, check out this iMovie I cobbled together while at the event. It's about 17 megs, so be patient.
Oh, and pay special attention to the last few seconds of the video. That's S at the controls, participating in an actual race that evening in what they advertised as the "Powder Puff" lady's only race.
How someone talked her into strapping on that helmet and getting on the back of a mower was beyond me, but considering she had pushed a mower maybe 3 or 4 times in her life and had never ridden on a riding mower, let alone drive one, I thought she did pretty well. Okay, okay, the magic of editing has her taking the checkered flag, but she came in 4th place...same place she started.
The inevitable question being, is there possibly a GRASCAR overhead valve twin powered mowing racer in the works behind all those hot rods parts at the back of my garage?
Well, if I can't convince C to get into Junior Dragster racing anytime soon, then perhaps a few wins on the GRASCAR circuit may get her interested in learning how to drift her Daddy's El Camino and maybe find her way into road racing.
Hey, it could happen.
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2 comments:
We were in Route 66 town on Saturday and saw the sign for lawnmower races near the road. We were tempted, but it was so blamed hot that we begged off.
Based on your film, it looks like they mod the heck out of those mowers. I doubt you could do actual grass-cutting with those.
We were passing through to go to White Dog Hill restaurant, on old Route 66 east of Clinton. "Come for the food, stay for the view" is its motto. We did, and we liked it very much.
THANK YOU !
S WAS AWESOME !
Come again any time, we can always find a mower for her to race in the Powder Puff Class !
RedGhee
JET RACING #68 is My Wife
I Build She Drives
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