Staying up too late last night and surfing the channel guide on my dish, i came across a Discovery channel show about lawnmower racing. after the initial shock wore off, i started to think it looked like a lot of fun! its really cheap for one thing, unless you take it to extremes. you can have a mower that goes 30-40mph for just a few hundred bucks and even if you didn't race it, it'd still be fun to build and ride.

any of ya'll involved in it or know somebody who is? what do you/they think about it? i understand that you dont win any money in these races but from what i gathered, thats not the point. all you get is a trophy and bragging rights till the next race. thse people were REALLY SERIOUS about this stuff and VERY competitive.

BTW, i told my fiance i might want to get into this and she said, "no way, thats more dangerous than racing a car, your not stapped in, what if you roll it over." i just told her she was crazy. from what i saw, its only dangerous if your careless, ie: a guy cut two of his fingers off when he hi-fived a buddy after an un-sanctioned experimental class race. his fingers somehow went through the drive chain.



any info or comments appreciated

 

Hey Ice, I wonder if they would let me run my Vacuum against them?

 

I saw it too, looked like a heck of a sport.

www.letsmow.com official website of the USLMRA.

There was a King of the Hill episode about it last week.

 

Yeah I saw that too. Looked pretty interesting.

 

oh good...yall saw it too! i wasnt dreaming

 

It is a big thing up in northern Wisconsin, I went to one of them races up there once, it was a blast!

 

Yeah....and maybe you can get a part time job cutting the grass on the local high school football field. You'll be done in ten min. or less!

 

lyfe is liik a bowcks of chowklets............thats awl i heyave to say bout thayt.

 

I know a couple of guys that have big block Mopars on lawnmowers. They are WILD and they cut grass too!! A few of my uncles build lawn tractors for pulling.

 

An dont forget the bar-stool racing...seen a picture of one with a harley engine in it...way cool.........

 

I don't actually go out racng with mine , but I did build one . When ever I get bored I make a new modification to it . It's a lot of fun and very affordable .
It started out simple enough , I just did some pulley swapping to make it a little faster and now its got a big chrome air cleaner on the hood , side pipes ( off a harley ) , a big wheelie bar coming off the back and a mikuni carburetor . I painted it green and yellow and stenciled "RON DEERE" on the sides . I think this springs project will be flame throwers on the exhaust .

You can have a lot of fun tinkering with them and it makes for a great conversation / entertainment piece at get togethers . The only person that won't appreciate it is your wife .

When I first built it I was about 20 foot away from my wife , I lined it up toward her , wound the throttle up and dumped the clutch , the tires belched a few times then it stood straight up on end and I was doing a wheelie headed straight at her ( no , I didn't hit her ) . Me and my brother in law were laughing uncontrollably , but as you could guess she just didn't see the humor in it ! But everybody else sure does get a kick out my Ron Deere .

BUT REMEMBER SAFETY FIRST !!!!!!

DO NOT MODIFY ANY TRACTOR THAT STILL HAS THE MOWER DECK ON IT.

 

I've seen several lawn mower races on TV.
I got a old Murray rear engine 10 horse lawn mower that I got pretty much free,
Im making it into something that you race, and a wheelie machine for the dragstrip.
All you ahve to do is change the gears in it.
If its chain drive change the size of the gears.
Same goes for belt drives.
I dont think you can do much with the static drive (or whatever they are)

But its fairly easy to get them to go fast

 

Also you might want to make it Fuel Injected if you plan on riding alot of wheelies Carbs dont run good standing straight up. lol
Im thinking about trying to put a mechanical fuel injection on mine.
Can't hurt the mower... I traded a Autozone battery with 850 cranking amps for the mower.
I got the battery free... some drunk guy came into O'reillys and said he wanted it replaced free because it went dead and he had bought it there. Sorry to tell the poor fella but Oreillys dont sell Autozone batteries. Needless to say he ended up getting arrested and the battery was left at the store. I got the battery free of charge a week later after he didnt claim it. (good battery also, good voltage and had 98% charge)
Poor old drunk guy lost a good battery and had a heck of a fine.
2 bad I got a race mower outta the deal now. lol
Any tips on making mowers go fast let me know.

 

I enjoy watching those races, too. I have a Simplicity Hydrostatic lawnmower that I got for free and I got it running and got it moving yesterday and the thing pops wheelies when I run it wide open and let off the brake. It's a cool little mower. I was suprised how much power the 11 hp Briggs puts out being that the lawnmower (with the original engine, too!) is 20 years old. I want to get an old John Deere and lift it about 10 or 12 inches!!!!!!! Oh, and I almost forgot, get the engine bored and stroked to make about 30 or 40 hp! I want to make that my "home made" 4 wheeler that'll whoop any atv out there.
Deere Power!!!!!!

 

My dad enters his mower in the Magrath lawn mower races every year. Not alot of drive changes other than the size of the pully off the motor.

He does have a high back bucket seat with a radio, antenna and a racoon tail on the antenna. He also has a sport steering wheel and found some full moon crome hubcaps