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STA-BIL Lawn Mower Racing: Still Mowin' and Growin'
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By Bruce Kaufman
President of the U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association
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This Guest Essay appeared in a September 1998 issue of AutoWeek
magazine.
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I love my lawn, but I hate cutting the grass. I pay the neighbor
kid a few bucks each week and that's that. I don't even own a lawn
mower. I like cars, but I'm certainly no gear head. I drive a
1986 Cutlass with 130,000 miles and let my mechanic do all the work.
I like watching the big races on TV like the Indy 500 and the Daytona 500
but I'm not glued to my TV set every weekend watching hours of racing.
With these less-than-sterling credentials, I've somehow managed to become
President of the U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association (USLMRA).
I was fortunate enough to be around in 1991 when Gold Eagle Co. thought a
lawn mower race might be an interesting promotion for STA-BIL Fuel
Stabilizer. I was there on April Fool's Day 1992 when we announced
the formation of the USLMRA, and I've been around for every mow down ever
since.
I've met a poultry farmer from California and a grave digger from New
York. An art teacher from Maryland and a computer operator from
Texas. A rancher from Montana and a secretary from Ohio. A
soft drink bottler from Wisconsin and a landscape technician from
Illinois. All these folks have one thing in common - they are lawn
mower racers!
Still, one question remains: What possesses someone to race a lawn
mower?
The answers can be found by chatting with racers who build machines with
names such as Turfinator, Sodzilla, Lawn Ranger, Ace of Blades, Hedge Hog,
Mowin' For Broke and Garden Gangster. As Autoweek reported a few years
back: Not in it for the money, these drivers of the world's fastest
lawn mowers pull-start purely for pride and the glory of the lawn.
Having been part of the mowing madness since the beginning, I'm
continually surprised at how big lawn mower racing has become in such a
short time. In just seven years we've grown from a one-off
promotional stunt for STA-BIL Fuel Stabilizer, to become a legitimate
amateur motorsport. As I travel the country and tell folks what I do
for a living, I constantly hear people tell me that they've heard of us,
they've seen us or read about us and of course, saw the lawn mower race on
Home Improvement.
Then, I take a step back and understand why lawn mower racing is so
popular: anyone can do it, it's inexpensive and fun and there is no
money involved. In these days of mega-bucks sports deals, primadonna
athletes, lock outs, walk outs, strikes and sanctioning body battles, it's
damn refreshing to be part of a sport that flies in the face of all that
is wrong with sports today.
"Sure, I'm out to win," said turf buster Bobby Cleveland of
Locust Grove, Georgia. "I'm out to win some points, take home
some trophies and show off a bit. But at the end of the day, I'm
fixin' to give some high-fives, laugh with friends and share some stories.
Just don't ask me to mow your lawn."
"I schedule my vacation time so I can go to as many lawn mower races
as possible," said Bob "Tiny" Frennesson of Katy, Texas,
who puts thousands of miles on his truck each summer. "Anything
less than 2,500 miles is just a commute." The fact that Tiny
inevitably pops a chain at almost every race and reaches a top speed of 17
mph in a class where 30 mph is average does not dampen Bob's "mowtivation"
one bit.
Lawn mower racing also brings new entertainment to fairs, festivals and
nonprofit groups across the country such as the River City Kiwanis in
Decatur, Alabama and Lewis and Clark Days in Cut Bank, Montana.
People still ask me: Are you for real!? I tell folks we sure
are for real. As a matter of fact, 1998 has the USLMRA poised for
exponential growth. We have a 4-race national television series set
to air on the Nashville Network (TNN) STA-BIL Sunday Night Mower Madness,
November 14, 21, 28, December 5, 12, 19, 11:30 PM ET. A national TV
series sounds pretty real to me!
As for me, well I've got a great gig. I'm just a writer, blues piano
player and gadfly who was in the right place at the right time. It
seems only fitting that a non-gear head with only passing interest in big
time motorsports is at the helm of America's Fastest Mowin Sport.
But, I'm smart enough to realize that the popularity of lawn mower racing
will continue to grow, thanks to folks with a sense of humor, passion for
racing and desire to have fun. I feel fortunate to be leading the
400 members of the USLMRA. From Alabama down South and Montana to
the North; Maryland to the East and Washington to the West, we're mowin'
and growin'.
I'm still not planning on owning a lawn mower, but maybe I'll buy a goat.
To learn more about the Glenview, IL-based USLMRA and its STA-BIL National
Lawn Mower Racing Series, contact the USLMRA at (847) 729-7363 or on the
world wide web at www.letsmow.com.
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