We gathered 10 crazy lawnmower racing photos to convey the mayhem of the track!
I raced lawnmowers for many years and I was lucky enough to see a ton of action from both behind the wheel, in the stands, and alongside the track.
Some pictures are crazier than others, so I've selected 10 that I've taken in the past that really show the action in different ways.
1. Tight corner
Coming around a corner, you shouldn't be able to see what's under a lawnmower. Even worse is when you see what's under the lawnmower multiple times.
2. Two-wheel terror!
Being up on two wheels isn't too terrible, but this happened when two lawnmowers touched front and rear wheels. The fun part about this is there are two pictures in this series.
2A. The second is below:
That's what happens when a racer and a photographer (in this case myself) realize we're going to meet in a rapid manner!
3. SMOKE!
A lawnmower that's on fire is NEVER a good thing. This happened because of an oil leak that got onto a hot exhaust system. He was able to save the mower and race again later that day.
4. More two-wheeled mayhem
You'll notice a trend of two wheels here. This happens more often than people think during races and rarely does it come out with good results. This mower ended up on its side and the driver rolling across the track. He was ok in the end, as was the mower, but it was a bit frightening when it happened.
5. Hay, what happened!
Hay bales can reach out and grab a lawnmower. It's a little-known fact that they try to swallow riders whole on occasion. This racer got extremely lucky and was going fast enough to burst through.
6. The making of a wreck
While this doesn't seem like much, the photo above is actually the start of an accident.
You'll notice the mowers in the front are turned into each other, and immediately after the shutter clicked, they ended up rolling through the dreaded hay bales.
No one was hurt but it was pretty scary to see at the time. When you're a photographer and racer at these tracks, sometimes it's hard to remember to take all the photos when you're so concerned about your fellow riders, and friends.
7. Posing for the shot
This was a fun shot. The yellow mower in the front would come around this corner on two wheels every single time, so it was easy to get a great shot of him pulling around.
8. Tight two-wheel turn
The orange tractor is a really good friend of mine and I was happy to see that he was able to ride out of this two-wheel turn.
9. This can't be right
Two mowers facing each other during a race is never a good sign, especially when one has time to wave hello to the one behind him.
In all actuality, the one with his arm in the air is telling everyone around that "Yes, I am facing the wrong way, but I'm currently OK. Please don't hit me!"
The yellow flag was quickly thrown after this and no one was hurt.
10. Pop a wheelie
I remember this track well. We would come around a tight corner at the bottom of the track and get on the throttle really hard coming up a hill. In the middle of the hill was a slight bump, this bump would lift your front wheels off the ground.
Those are 10 lawnmower racing pictures that I feel capture the excitement pretty well.
Now that you've seen the photos, are you ready to race a lawnmower yourself?
NEXT: WHY AUTO RACING IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF BEING AN AMERICAN
