BruceKaufman

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!

The third race in our 2015 Season, held during the Summit Racing Motorama at Atlanta Motor Speedway, was covered by Angeline Hartness Robinson. Enjoy!

The STA-BIL National lawn mower racing event at the Summit Motorama last weekend was held at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. The races were action packed from start until finish!

Let’s begin with Friday; We arrived in Georgia on Friday with the rain, and lots of it! Everyone was skeptical if we were even going to be able to race Saturday. We arrived to the the track, inside of the infield at the Atlanta Motor Speedway Saturday morning. It was cloudy and the rain was misting. The lawn mower track sat inside of turn 3 situated directly beside the location where the monster trucks were to perform. The track was soupy, it had so much mud on it that when you stepped on it your boots immediately sank. The crew that the speedway provided for us were awesome! They worked really hard and listened to advice from several racers and USLMRA officials.

After a couple of hours of grading and other track preparations, those guys actually made us a track to race on out of what started as soupy mud! We would like to send out a sincere thanks to those guys that worked so hard on constricting this track for us! The clouds parted around midday and we were finally able to go race!

It's nice and sunny as it's time for United States Lawn Mower Racing Association racing at Motorama!

Posted by Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday, April 18, 2015

 
Although the track wasn’t the best we had ever raced on, it would do. Some drivers were simply able to make that track work for them and their mowers, others could not. The crowd loved it regardless. There were tons of wheelies popped in EVERY class, even the kids class. It was insane! Mowers were spinning out everywhere and the crowd was going wild! The crowd lined the fence barrier that separated the lawn mower track from the vendor booths, I even noticed many fans were sitting and standing on the speedway track. Now I know that you drivers nor your mowers really appreciated the torture, but it was a great show for the fans! I however was a nervous wreck, even more so than usual. Having that much power on that slick of a track scared the life out of me. I commend all of you drivers who braved the elements to give those fans a show that they deserved!

We practiced, then ran the 10 lap heat races for each class of racing. All of us were very in tune with weather radars during this time. The sky looked as though it was going to break loose with rain again at any given moment. All radars showed another front coming through, it was just a matter of time. The track crew worked on the track more during intermission. We then held a second drivers meeting to take a vote on the mains. The drivers and staff together decided that the mains would be knocked down to 10 laps as well due to the threat of bad weather coming in. After the main races were complete, we all convened for the trophy ceremony. After the awards for the day were given out we all had more discussions on what would come of Sunday’s races. The weather was looking terrible! It was decided that in the event of a complete rain out, that Saturday’s heat races would count as Sunday’s main races.

2015 STA-BIL Series Lawn Mower Racing at the Atlanta Motor Speedway Summit Racing Motorama

Posted by United States Lawn Mower Racing Association on Wednesday, April 22, 2015

 
Unfortunately for all, it rained more in the early hours of Sunday morning. We all arrived to the track around 9:00 am for a final decision. The race was called off. We did our final trophy ceremony and said our “See ya soon’s.”

We would like to give a huge thanks to the Atlanta Motor Speedway, Summit Racing, Jamie Maurice, Shane Shellnut, and everyone else who helped make this show possible. Also thank you to the dedicated USLMRA staff and their wonderful team of volunteers who step right up to help when asked.

One more thing before I close; Bobby Cleveland, it was great seeing you able to actually race at this race. I know that you really enjoyed hanging out with old friends and new in Charlotte at your Auto Fair booth, but that race just wasn’t the same without you racing. We were glad to see you back out there. I would also like to send best wishes, lots of luck, and many congratulations to you and your beautiful bride to be for this coming Saturday, your wedding day. I’m sure that everything will be just perfect. I can’t wait to hear all about it.

This concludes my race weekend recap for Atlanta Motor Speedway. I wish it were longer and as action packed as my last blogs have been. Hopefully the weather will cooperate for our next National event in Ellerbe, NC on May 16 & 17, so that I may bring you all 2 full days of sod slinging action. See y’all there!


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