Have you ever seen the teenager next door racing down the dirt track on his dad’s lawn mower and wondered what was happening to today’s generation? Don’t freak out over it, racing lawn mowers have now taken the shape of an active sport, with loads participating and masses following it.
A lawn mower is an electronic device that has one or more revolving blades to cut grass at an even length. But did we ever think that the mower could be used for a fun sport? This unique sport of Lawn mower racing started, when a group of boys had a brainstorm sitting in a pub in West Sussex, United Kingdom in the year 1973. The main man behind it was an Irishman, Jim Gavin, who’d raced cars all over the world. The idea was more publicity for motor sports and since ‘everyone had a lawn mower’, what’s better to race than the homely mower?
This idea gave birth to The British Lawn Mower Racing Association, which now has 250 members and incorporates a calendar that has 12 race dates. On April Fools Day in 1992, when the Chicago based, Gold Eagle Company, makers of fuel stabilizer, Sta-Bil, got the sport to the US. Now, it has its own nationwide organization called the U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association. They list out the rules for racing every year, which generally has the minimum age and membership rules that apply to mower racing.
The sport is simple. The main equipment required is the standard lawn mower, which in ordinary usage would cut the grass in your yard through its blades. But during the race, most racers take the blades off. The racing is divided into 4 groups, depending on the kind of mower you’re going to race with.
Lawn mower racing has caught up with the public in the big way, with huge crowds gathering to watch it and the media pitching in to cover the events. Sponsors are also coming forward to fund the most rooted for racer in the crowd.
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