As the racers line up and take their marks, the crowd cheers and tensions rise. Any second, they will mount their vehicles and drive around the track, competing for the finish line and the coveted checkered flag. The countdown begins: On your mark, get set, mow!

Racers in the United States Lawn Mower Racing Association spend the year anticipating races such as these. They occur all over the country, with more than 150 racers. One of the USLMRA’s biggest races, the Sam Rogers U.S. All American Open, will be in Alabama on Nov. 5.

Although the race will be out of state, the organization’s origins are in Illinois, according to Bruce “Mr. Mow It All” Kaufman, founder and president of the USLMRA.

“The folks at Gold Eagle, [a Chicago-based automotive company], heard about a lawn mower race going on in England, a British lawn mower racing association that was founded in 1973, and they thought, ‘This is kinda cool, maybe this can be an interesting product promotion,’” Kaufman said.

Together, Kaufman and employees from Gold Eagle went to England in summer 1991, met the founder of the British lawn mower’s association and created the USLMRA. When the sport started gaining audiences and the attention of news media outlets, Kaufman and the company decided the “mow” the merrier.

Kaufman is full of lawn mower racing puns, which he says reflect the inherent humor the sport possesses. The racers show their senses of humor with playful nicknames like “Mowna Lisa,” “Bat Mowbile” and “Sodzilla.” Kaufman also said that while contenders like to joke, the competition is serious.

“Lawn mower racing is fun, fast, safe, somewhat humorous, whimsical and absolutely serious at the same time,” Kaufman said. “The juxtaposition between whimsical silliness and absolutely serious fast, smoking racing that’s professionally managed is unique because the racing has a sense of humor.”

The USLMRA, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2012, is the over arching governing body of lawn mower racing, but it also has local chapters. The Illinois chapter, run by President Ken Jones, who is also a racer, is located in Mendota, Ill. Originally, the Mendota Chamber of Commerce asked Jones to run a local chapter, but after two years, the city wasn’t interested anymore, so Jones took over the chapter independently.

“I love all forms of motor sports racing,” Jones said. “I got involved in lawn mower racing because it’s a cheap, fun sport.”

George Feldman, president of the Indiana chapter, also has a motor sport background. He runs a motor art company and says even though he doesn’t build his motors, he does most of his own decorative work.

“I’m more of a brush than a wrench,” Feldman said.

The races do not have cash prizes. Although some drivers are sponsored, such as Jones, they do not get paid to race. Jones said that the only thing his sponsorship covers is travel fees and parts. Kaufman emphasized that the growing sport can attribute its numbers to affordability.

“Back in the day, before the economic downturn, we saw some racers jump in the car and drive for 10 hours for a race,” Kaufman said. “We still do see that, but there are so many opportunities to race at a local level, so people are a little more reluctant to travel so far.”

Most of the expenses the athletes incur come from either traveling costs or maintenance for their lawn mowers. Most drivers build their own mowers, which is a relatively cheap process compared to building other types of racing vehicles, Jones said.

Although the sport is growing, he said athletes are cutting back on traveling because of the surge in gas prices during the last couple of years. Kaufman echoed this notion and said, “I had friends who used to travel all the way from Phoenix to race at my track before gas prices got so astronomical.”

To combat this problem, most organizations hold two-day events on the weekends so drivers get to participate in more than one race when they are traveling long distances, according to Jones. It also allows them to rack up more points, which help their standings overall.

Points are given out just for signing up and participating in races, in addition to placing high. The points determine ranking, which affects qualification for nationals.

The races are divided up into different divisions based on the motor size and speed of the lawn mower. The official rules have races divided up into the stock class, which are motors delivered from the factory that haven’t been tinkered with; the International Mowers of Weeds class, which is highly regulated and for front engines; the prepared class, for motors that have been tampered with; the FX class, for highly tinkered-with engines; and the JP class, for competitors ages 10–15.

In the actual races, lawn mowers travel at approximately 35–50 mph, according to Feldman, although the current world record for lawn mower speed, set in 2010, is 96.529 mph. The record was set by USLMRA

member Bobby Cleveland, one of the great “mowments” in the sport’s history, according to Kaufman.

Although the sport has reached the national level, the family-like atmosphere at the races has stayed the same, according to Jones and Kaufman. Jones said his daughter, who also races, grew up attending events, and the other children at the races became her good friends.

“[My daughter] grew up around lawn mower races,” Jones said. “We’d go to the races, and she’d go out of the truck and go play with all the other kids who she knew and had met. They are what we consider an extended family.”

In other words, even though they’re trying to beat each other, the drivers always “mow” who to go to if they need help during the competitions: each other.

“Unlike other types of motor racing, during lawn mower races, someone you are going to race against in 15 minutes will help you get your vehicle running if it breaks,” Feldman said.