Archive for August, 2010

Cheap Seats was an ESPN Classic TV program hosted by brothers Randy and Jason Sklar, who appear as fictional ESPN librarians who watch and play peanut gallery to old sports broadcasts. Season One, Episode 18 featured the 2003 STA-BIL National Lawn Mower Racing Finals in Mansfield, Ohio!

We’re proud to announce the winner of the U.S. Open Patch Design Contest, Matt Westervelt of Brooklyn, New York. Matt created a fantastic logo, which is now displayed on this website and will be used in a variety of purposes.

The logo will be turned into a sticker for your mower and a patch for your racing suit and will be given to all racers at the U.S. Open. Check it out!

It’s the last STA-BIL Series U.S. Points Races before the 2010 STA-BIL Nationals, and it’s THIS weekend, Saturday and Sunday, August 14-15, in Englewood, Tennessee.

For more information, including a schedule, map, and hotel deals, click here.

New York’s WPIX Sports Anchor / News Reporter Lolita Lopez talks lawn mower racing with Mike ‘Mow Power’ Paccione and his wife Tina ‘Ma Power’ Paccione!

No doubt at this point you have heard about the latest in a long line of great events to come out of the USLMRA head office, the U.S. Open. If not, here ya mow! The who, what, when and where, have been blasted from here on the USLMRA website, as well as on the Heymow Forum and on the pages of Mowmentum Magazine for months now. But what you may not know is why?

As you may know, during the past three years the USLMRA has added more than 30 Local Chapters , Affiliated Clubs and Affiliated Tracks. Unprecedented growth, even by USLMRA Standards. While the USLMRA Local Chapter program, the flagship local/regional membership model, continues to expand, there has been exponential growth in the USLMRA AC network, which allows for more flexible and “open” build rules.

The success of the USLMRA AC program comes with both positive and negative impact on the overall landscape of the USLMRA. The biggest challenge was the lack of a national event to showcase non-traditional builds of the Affiliated Club racers. Well, what would the best way to do that? Bring them all together in one place. Duh. And the USLMRA Open was born.

I took an unofficial poll at a recent national USLMRA event. I asked racers, of all levels, their thoughts on the US Open. Believe it or not there were only two concerns from all of the people I talked to.

What were they?

Well the idea is great but what if you get too many racers? You have to remember on top of the Sta-Bil Keeps Gas Fresh Finals and all the racers that event brings you are inviting everyone else from everywhere else!!!

And…

Is there going to be enough food?

I will answer the easy one first: Yes, we are inviting everyone from everywhere (USLMRA member or not).  Anyone that has been to a National USLMRA event in the past few years has seen the awesome Timing and Scoring system that Kerry Evans of EOP Pro provides to the USLMRA. Kerry and staff have assured me that they have us covered. We will also have enough race stewards, tech inspectors, flaggers, track maintenance people and support staff on hand to deliver a well-run event.

Now the answer to the harder question: I suggest you pre register to be sure we have enough food, and then when the chow bell rings GET IN LINE! If you are racing in the U.S. Open, we would really like you to pre register. For more information about the event, click here, and to fill out the pre-registration form, click here.

See you there!

Lee Vine
U.S. Open Co-Chair
USLMRA Northwest Regional Director
Steering Committee Member
President, Minnesota Lawn Mower Racing Association