Mower Racing: A New Mowllennium Sport

The Summer Olympics in Australia are just a memory. But with it, we once more caught a glimpse of some strange "sports." Would you believe synchronized diving? How about trampoline? I mean, who hasn't bounced on a trampoline before, but imagine winning gold medals for bouncing?

Let me be the first garden columnist to propose an entirely new Olympic sport. A sport for would-be gardeners who must buy the latest gardening gizmo, no matter if you need it or not. This is a sport for those gardeners who wash and wax their lawn mowers. This is a sport for those who own a riding lawn mower even though their lawn is the size of an Amish quilt. Without further ado, I bring you: lawn mower racing!

Yes, there really is a group of folks that race riding lawn mowers. I swear they do. And yes, they do it sober!

In fact, there's a formal lawn mower racing circuit - a new "mowllennium" season, if you will, that is experiencing "mowmentous" growth. Sponsored by the Stabil gasoline additive folks, the mowing circuit can sometimes be viewed on The Nashville Network and something called the Speedvision cable network. The circuit hits all the hot spots of mower racing. Places like Mobile, Alabama; Greenfield, Indiana; Kiskatom, New York; Adrian, Michigan; Bunnell, Florida; Costa Mesa, California and, of course, Marysville, Ohio. The latter, by the way, is home of the Scotts fertilizer company where they really take growing your lawn seriously.

Guys, gals and even kids race riding lawn mowers. The U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association - yes, there really is such an organization - governs the sport. There are several levels of mower classification from your basic riding mower with the blades yanked off to factory experimental where racers can do 60 mph and cut an average lawn in 10.7 seconds!

Most machines are long-retired mowers that competitors rebuild. In fact, that's one of the big draws to the sport. You don't need to drop $10,000 or $20,000 into it as you would a stock car, for instance. Decal-decorated John Deeres, Snappers and Murrays feature names such as: Sodzilla, Ace of Blades, Geronimow, Weedy Gonzales, Turfinator, Yankee Clipper and the Lawn Ranger. And now, it may be on to the Olympics in Greece in 2004!

Why not? So asks Bruce Kaufman, the president of the Sta-Bil Lawn Mower Racing Series. "Our sport has no strikes, no holdouts, no doping, although some people have called us dopey.

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