A Note From USLMRA President Bruce “Mr. MowItAll” Kaufman
Each race in this year’s STA-BIL National Lawn Mower Racing Series will be covered by one of our own members, a designated “Pit Reporter” who’ll report back on the weekend’s happenings, the racing action, and mow!
This season’s race in Gun Barrel City, Texas was covered by our Pit Reporters Angeline Robinson and Zoe Kaufman.
Can we get a yee-haw?!
The USLMRA infiltrated the Lone Star State of Texas on June 11-12 weekend! We had our fabulously famous national staff on hand; Manny Torres, National Tech Director, Kerry Evans, USLMRA VP and Chief of scoring and timing, and Bruce Kaufman, Mr. Mow It All. We also had Zoe Kaufman, Adam (Bruce’s nephew), and Angeline as support staff; taking pictures, conducting interviews, and helping out where we could. We had many of our own lawn stars at the track this weekend too. Some of Angeline’s own racers from South Carolina, Tommy Hartness, Drew Clabough, and Andy Clabough all made the trip to race, Derrick Robinson was unable to attend due to last minute work obligations. The OK Mower Racers came down from Oklahoma, Harold and Stephanie McDonald, and their awesome crew. Jason Murray and Doc MOW, Kenny Holder came in from Arkansas, and the Bennings, Larry (Teddy Bear) and his wife Jennifer came down from Kansas.
Of course, no lawn mower racing adventure in Texas would be complete without John Nelson, Sir Lawns A Lot, a USLMRA Hall of Famer and jokester extraordinaire!
John Nelson, or Sir-Lawns-A-Lot has been racing around a track since 2001. Beginning with IMOW and progressing to almost all of the classes. Lawns-A-Lot, and the late Charles Powell, “Mr. Mowjangles” who was president of the Lone Star Mower Racing Association, hit it off right away. Lawns-A-Lot became vice president of the chapter and together with Mowjangles were a mow-than-perfect team traveling all over the country. After the passing of Charles, John humbly took over the presidency.
John is now involved in “mow” things than just lawn mower racing. He’s a proud Texan and claims he’s not a “sitting on the couch” kind of guy. Retired for four years he took on the project of constructing a piece of machinery called the “Mow longer”. Built from scratch from an old lawn mower that had been sitting in the garage, the Mow Longer is 14ft long. He chopped it up and put it back together and after six months the Mow Longer had 5 engines. Mr. Nelson uses the Mow Longer for promotional purposes to get the Lone Star Mower Racing Association name out there. Mr. Nelson drives the Mow Longer around on an open trailer and many people will pass by, roll down their windows and take pictures of it. Mr. Nelson says the thing that bugs him the most is when people say, “There is such a thing as lawn mower racing??” Mr. Nelson is hoping to change that with the help of the Mow Longer. It’s sure to be a success in Texas.
Angeline’s crew from South Carolina made the 14+-hour trip to Gun Barrel City, Texas to compete in this Sta-Bil 360 national race. The SC, crew decided to drive all night Thursday in an effort to arrive early Friday to rest before racing activities on Saturday and Sunday. The SC all arrived in the early morning hours of Friday morning.
Then came Saturday and Sunday; RACE DAYS! Now let’s talk about some racing. The mower count was on the low side, but that was ok! We came to have fun, and to have new experiences, and we did just that! Although the mower count was low, racing was at an elevated high! Andy Clabough stole the show both days with wins in the GP class. Doc MOW, Kenny Holder held off his competitors both days in the CP class. Larry Benning was able to step his way into the winner’s circle in the SP class both Saturday and Sunday. The I-Mow class was my favorites class of the weekend though. It was compiled of 3 ladies; these ladies battled their hearts out against one another all weekend, trading positions back and forth throughout all races! It was great to see the competitiveness brewing amongst the women. These ladies drive one another so hard on the track, but come off the track and hug; like they are sisters… WAIT!!! Two of them are sisters!!! Ada Parnell, eMOWji and Debbie Hobbs are in fact real life sisters. Holly Walker might as well be these two’s adopted sister. All of these ladies speak so highly of one another on and off the track, it’s awesome! Some of you men out there need to let these ladies show you a thing or two about sportsmanship. Holly Walker may not be Ada and Debbie’s sister, but she is wife to Police Chief, Robert Walker. Both Holly and Chief Walker’s racing mowers were decoratively themed to represent the chief’s career in law enforcement. Chief Walker’s mower went a touch above all others, though. He had blue and red flashing LED lights in his headlights! It was hilarious watching him “chase” Mr. MOWyagi down in the BP race on Sunday. It was like watching a real police chase, until Robert passed Mike for the win. The FXS class showed really good racing during both days, all three MOWchines seemed to be pretty equal in power, but Jason Murray would hold off Kenny Boyle and Drew Clabough to win both of those races. The FXT race was very exciting Saturday and Sunday, Scott Wilder inched out Andy Clabough, Kenny Holder, and Glenn Wilhelm all the while, popping monstrous wheelies on his mower! I’ve never seen any mower pull the front tires like Scott’s did, he was in excess of 4 feet in the air at times! Needless to say, our first impression of Texas was FUN!!!
We are so blessed to add more members to our already abundant racing family, everyone was amazing there!
HUGE THANKS to Mr. MOWyagi, Michael Howell and his club, L.S.M.R.A. for hosting this national race at their track. Mike and his crew worked tirelessly on the racetrack to give us the best track they possibly could. They worked between the heats and mains, they worked between the slower classes and the faster classes to give the faster guys the best racing surface; these guys worked their tails off all weekend for us! Thank you all! Also, thanks to the volunteers at the Toys-4-Tots benefit that worked tirelessly to keep us fed from morning to night each day! Thank you to everyone who had a part in making this Texas race such a success! It was wonderful from beginning to end!
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