Lions Club Lawnmower Races

The dust cloud rising from the rear tires of the roaring lawnmowers grew thicker settling brown dust on the perspiration-damp crowd and racers. Most of the audience sat in the shade on bleachers, finding temperatures slightly cooler on the sweltering summer evening Saturday on the Patterson farm off Lee Town Road for the sixth annual Race for Sight Lawnmower Races.

A fundraiser for the Pea Ridge Lions Club, the race provides family fun for participants, racers and the crowd alike.

Several of the racers were from Claremore, Okla. One family, members of O.K. Mower Racing, used to live in Pea Ridge. Randy and Donna Roper said they used to belong to both the Pea Ridge Fire and Ambulance departments when they lived here and remembered serving with former Fire Chief Frank Rizzio and ambulance personnel Roger and Shirley Harris and Mike Yarberry.

“Just slingin’ some dirt” is the motto of O.K. Mower Racing, according to the banner hanging from the canopy over the base for the Ropers and Sandeckis.

Brothers-in-law Randy Roper and Ray Sandecki and four of their children enjoy spending weekends on the track.

“It’s a great family activity,” Sandecki said. “Our wives organize it.”

“These scare me,” Donna admitted, “but I’ll let them go ahead and do it.”

Randy and Donna’s daughters, Maggie, 13, and Brooklynn, 7, race in separate divisions. Both girls are learning how to maintain their equipment with their father’s help.

“We’ve done it for two or three years now,” Donna Roper said. “It’s a fun time and the girls are learning how to change the oil and change a tire with their dad.”

“We like getting prizes,” Brooklynn said.

“Usually, we just get bragging rights,” Maggie smiled.

Michael Kilbourne of Mow Dirt Racing, Green Forest, said lawnmower racing is a “cheaper way of racing.” There are several different classes of mowers and, depending on the track, Kilbourne said mowers can travel as fast as 40 miles per hour, but most of the ones at Pea Ridge were going 26 to 27 miles per hour.

The U.S. Lawnmower Racing Association governs lawnmower racing in the United States, Kilbourne said. “It’s a big deal,” he said, explaining that racers run “hot laps” to determine their position in the heat for the feature race.

Lions Club officers Harry and Judy Palmer said the turnout was good.

TIMES photographs by Annette Beard The sunset lengthened shadows brought slightly cooler temperatures to a sweltering summer evening Saturday, July 23, as lawnmower racers from the four-state area prepared for the final round of racing. In the photo at right, a boy races his push mower...

Bud Hooten waves a white flag signaling the beginning of the last lap of the final race Saturday. Hooten and Michael Kilbourne are with Mow Dirt Racing from Green Forest.

Ray Sandecki helped line up Devin Payne, right, and Maggie Roper, left, as they prepare to race in the Pure Stock division Saturday, July 23, at the Pea Ridge Lions Club’s sixth annual Race for Sight Lawnmower Races at the Patterson farm, Lee Town...

Kenna Shiers, Elizabeth Vazquez and Brooklynn Roper (above, left photo) twist to keep hula hoops up during events for the youth at the annual Race for Sight. Shiers, 12, is the daughter of Julie Shiers of Pea Ridge and the late Ken Shiers. Vazquez, 11,...