At County Fair, gentlemen start their mowers
The lawn mowers can clock up to 90 miles per hour. They can spit dirt and draw curious dozens away from county fair rides and turkey legs. But no, they can’t cut grass. “The blades are the first to go,” said David Calvert as he prepped for the Wednesday evening lawn mower race at the Maricopa County Fair.
Calvert is one of the founders and the current vice president of the Arizona Lawn Mower Racing Association —“How the West was Mow’ed”
He started the local movement about 15 years ago at the suggestion of one of the committee members of a Buckeye demolition derby. As a kid mowing yards growing up, Calvert “always dreamed of making my lawn mower go faster,” he said.
The mowers’ brakes and steering are improved, but they’re “all lawn mower,” Calvert said—“the engine, transmission, tires, frame … everything.”
Calvert discovered there was a na- tional association for the sport, and helped build the 30-odd membership in Arizona. The pack gets together once a month or so at fairs, demolition derbies and the like.
“We’re kind of a traveling freak show,” Calvert said after a Wednesday evening practice run. “There’s nothing funnier than seeing a bunch of grown men dicing it up on lawn mowers.” It’s a fair assessment. From the stands they look like preteens on go-carts. It’s not until the helmets are off that you notice the tufts of gray and faces the likes of Clark Eikenbary, the oldest racer at 82.
Eikenbary started the hobby a few years ago when he acquired a junk lawn mower in exchange for a Wendy’s hamburger.
“It’s kept me out of the bars,” he said when asked why he races. “I don’t have any money to chase women.”
All of Wednesday’s competitors were men, but the racers will assure anyone who’ll listen there’s something for the ladies too — a purple racing mower is currently for sale on Craigslist, one says.
The racers revved up to the song “Wild Thing” and took off after the singing of the national anthem — Eikenbary only after a push from one of the arena’s staff. Another mower stalled indefinitely.
A banana-yellow mower driven by 37year-old Brian Rich was named the winner, but he was unaware of this fact until interviewed about it.
Calvert wasn’t sure what place he came in, either—maybe 6th out of10? He attributed the loss to his lack of “mojo”— he typically dyes his beard green for luck.
But today wasn’t about the competition. Today, Calvert said, they rode for “mower awareness.”