For centuries, competitive sports have included races of one form or another: those on foot; in chariots, wagons or buggies; on sailboats, yachts and other seagoing vessels; and with the invention of the automobile, motorcars and ultimately, airplanes.
But how about riding lawn mowers? Powered by a simple internal combustible engine, the sit-down mowers – factory-built to cut grass and nothing else – eventually proved too tempting to tinkerers, and it became inevitable that one owner’s machine would be pitted against another in a race.
And thus, the sport of lawn mower racing was born, and its popularity has grown worldwide, with groups of competitors and sophisticated racing venues.
That scenario is pretty much what has vroomed into mostly serious, oval-track racing at the Cherokee Nation’s Will Rogers Casino east of Claremore. Harold McDonald, head of what is now the OK Mower Racing Association, recalls that a group of men were gathered behind a local veterans organization’s meeting hall several years ago, and started comparing their riding mowers.
“They were just drinking beer and telling each other, ‘my mower is faster than yours,’” he says with a laugh. “Before you know it, 8 to ten guys got into it. I got me a little lawn mower and started building on it. We thought we could get some sponsors and T-shirts. Then we started breaking it into classes.”
The Claremore group began racing their vehicles as drag racers, but soon after, were invited to compete in Miami, Okla., where there was a circular track.
“Ours were made to go straight; they weren’t made to turn,” he says. More tinkering ensued, and conversation led to construction of a circular track in Claremore, then a better track at the Cherokee Nation’s Will Rogers Casino.
McDonald says a northeast Oklahoma tornado last spring took out much of the track, and competitors were forced to find racing meets elsewhere, including Lebo, Kan., 175 miles away. He says the Cherokee Nation has been instrumental in getting the track ready for the upcoming season, which he hopes can begin in March.
Meanwhile, about 200 miles south, in Marshall County, Justin Stuckey says he and some of his friends started racing lawn mowers several years ago “as a fun thing to do on weekends,” and eventually formed what became the Texoma Lawn Mower Racing Association.
The group holds weekend race meets at a 16th-mile oval track on Stuckey’s land near Madill, with one wide turn and one narrow turn. Racing is split into a spring and fall season beginning in March and going through late May or early June and resuming in September.
Stuckey says his organization recently created a new competition class they call Mowrods, with maximum speeds of about 45 miles per house.
“We wanted to keep a beginner under $1,000,” he says, noting that some of the larger racing machines can be expensive. “You can go down the road, buy all the pieces.”
Hardware store owner Kerry Evans, of Mobile, Ala., is president of the United States Lawn Mower Racing Association, and says racing machines have one requirement.
“Everything starts out lawn mower,” he says. “It had to have been used to cut grass to qualify.” Basic racing mowers start with traditional lawn mower engines, transmissions and tires – then the modifications begin.
“We try to keep kids and family involved,” he mentons. “Every event is like a family reunion.”
U.S. races are held throughout the year, depending on location.
“Northern states start in April and go through November,” he says. “Our season [in south Alabama] is mostly year-round.”
The sport continues to grow in popularity, with lawn mower racing events now popular in Australia.
Evans has a quick explanation of the sport’s popularity: “If you like to tinker,” he says, “this is the sport to be in.”
Main photo cutline: The Texoma Lawn Mower Racing Association group holds weekend race meets at a 16th-mile oval track near Madill. Photo courtesy the Texoma Lawn Mower Racing Association
