Topic: 6.6.08 Jonesboro Sun: Story on STA-BIL Arkansas Mow Down Show Down

[mrmowitall]

Nice story and photo of father-and-son racing team Glenn and Kyle Bridger, Arkansas Lawn Mower Racing Association.


http://www.jonesborosun.com/story.php?ID=33361



Friday, June 6, 2008

Kevin Turbeville | The Sun

Glenn Bridger (left), Cody Forrest (center) and Kyle Bridger display lawnmowers that have been adapted for racing. The STA-BIL Arkansas Mow Down Show Down is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at the ASU Equine Center.
Mower racing satisfies Bridger’s need for speed

By Kevin Turbeville
Sun staff writer

BROOKLAND — Glenn Bridger had given up drag racing, but he never lost the desire to go fast.
When he went to a local lawnmower race a few years ago, he found an economical way to satisfy his need for speed. Now Bridger and his son Kyle race every chance they get.

“It does hook you. I’ve raced different stuff all my life, but this is a cheap way of racing,” said Bridger, who is the president of the Arkansas Lawn Mower Racing Association. “You can build a really good mower for basically $2,000 and have a really fast mower. It’s a cheap way of racing and it keeps the kids off the streets, entertained, and it’s something they can learn.”

The Bridgers — who compete as K&G Racing — will be among the racers battling for bragging rights in Jonesboro this weekend at the STA-BIL Arkansas Mow Down Show Down. The 2-day national race, a benefit for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), is expected to draw 30-50 competitors to Arkansas State University’s Equine Center.

The Arkansas Mow Down Show Down will be the fifth National Lawn Mower Racing Series event in Jonesboro. The Bridgers decided to build their first mower after going to one of the first races in town. A driver passing by their home on U.S. 49 might think they’re out cutting the grass when they’re burning it up instead.

But racing mowers have been modified for speed, not a better cut. They don’t carry blades.

“Everything is removed from the deck. They have little pieces of the deck that’s been cut off and welded to the footboards to make it look like a deck, but other than that, the mowers are basically a go-cart on a lawnmower frame,” Bridger explained. “We use go-cart axles, go-car front steering. They’re four inches off the ground to the frame. The deck height has to be two and a half inches, and the drive frame is pretty well open as long as you don’t use a variable-speed clutch. You have to use a transmission.”
Bridger said twin-cylinder mowers will run in excess of 80 miles per hour, while single-cylinder mowers run in the 50-55 range. Normally the Bridgers race on arena tracks, but a good-sized track will have a 300-foot straightaway. Speeds in the races this weekend at the Equine Center are expected to reach 60 mph.

Fourteen races, two in each classification, are scheduled Saturday and Sunday, Bridger said. Competition begins at 2 p.m. both days and lasts approximately two hours.

Heat races go 15 laps while the feature races last 20 laps. Races begin with a Le Mans start that has drivers sprinting to their mowers.
Arkansas chapter races normally attract 15 to 20 mowers, Bridger said. The Bridgers race out of state as well, going to Tennessee and Kentucky. They hope to race in Mississippi later this year and are talking about going to Chicago for a race.
“It’s just a hobby. It’s something I enjoy doing and my son enjoys it,” said Bridger, whose son painted their mowers as a class project in vo-tech. “He’s really good on mowers and he works on mowers for other people, too. We just work all the time out here. If we’re not in the house, we’re out here in the shop.”

Bridger said it’s possible to build a mower with a modified motor for $2,000. A person wishing to build a mower in the stock class can do so for as little as $1,000, he said, and a mower can be built in basically a week if all the parts are available.

And the only mower Bridger wants to race is the kind he can get for free. He doesn’t buy lawnmowers to build to race.
“I’ve found mowers in the junkyard at Mountain Home. We’ve found them in Missouri junkyards. There’s a pretty good salvage yard in Pocahontas and down Highway 18, there are people who have junk mowers,” Bridger said. “A lot of times we get mowers during Clean Sweep. You can drive around and people will have an old mower on the road that they want to get rid of. You can talk to them and they’ll let you have it if you haul it off. You’ve got the basic frame and the body. You take an old motor and rebuild it, and that’s all you have to have.”
“Sod Warriors,” as a U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association press release calls them, do not ride for cash prizes. They ride for points, trophies and old-fashioned bragging rights.

Bridger said the Arkansas chapter, one of 30 chapters affiliated with the Illinois-based USLMRA, races around the state for fun and to benefit causes such as CASA. Admission for this weekend’s lawnmower races is $5 for adults, with children free.
“I’d love to see more people get involved in racing them,” Bridger said. “We travel as a group when we go to race. We all stay together in the same motel if we have to spend the night and we just have a good time. It’s all a family deal. There’s no drinking or anything like that allowed in our group.


“It’s just clean fun. We race for bragging rights.”

kturbeville@jonesborosun.com 




Bruce Kaufman
"Mr. Mow It All"
Founder & President
U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association, Est. 1992
1812 Glenview Rd.
Glenview, IL 60025
Phone:  (847) 729-7363
Fax:  (847) 729-4208
www.letsmow.com
www.uslmra.com

[LVine2001]

Excellent article, way to go K&G Racing and congratulations on a job well done to the Arkansas Lawn Mower Racing Association. This is just the sort of thing we need, to further Lawn Mower Racing in the public eye !!