Annette Beard
The dust cloud rising from the rear tires of the roaring lawnmowers grew thicker settling brown dust on the perspiration-damp crowd and racers. Most of the audience sat in the shade on bleachers, finding temperatures slightly cooler on the sweltering summer evening Saturday on the Patterson farm off Lee Town Road for the sixth annual Race for Sight Lawnmower Races.
A fundraiser for the Pea Ridge Lions Club, the race provides family fun for participants, racers and the crowd alike.
Several of the racers were from Claremore, Okla. One family, members of O.K. Mower Racing, used to live in Pea Ridge. Randy and Donna Roper said they used to belong to both the Pea Ridge Fire and Ambulance departments when they lived here and remembered serving with former Fire Chief Frank Rizzio and ambulance personnel Roger and Shirley Harris and Mike Yarberry.
"Just slingin' some dirt" is the motto of O.K. Mower Racing, according to the banner hanging from the canopy over the base for the Ropers and Sandeckis.
Brothers-in-law Randy Roper and Ray Sandecki and four of their children enjoy spending weekends on the track.
"It's a great family activity," Sandecki said. "Our wives organize it."
"These scare me," Donna admitted, "but I'll let them go ahead and do it."
Randy and Donna's daughters, Maggie, 13, and Brooklynn, 7, race in separate divisions. Both girls are learning how to maintain their equipment with their father's help.
"We've done it for two or three years now," Donna Roper said. "It's a fun time and the girls are learning how to change the oil and change a tire with their dad."
"We like getting prizes," Brooklynn said.
"Usually, we just get bragging rights," Maggie smiled.
Michael Kilbourne of Mow Dirt Racing, Green Forest, said lawnmower racing is a "cheaper way of racing." There are several different classes of mowers and, depending on the track, Kilbourne said mowers can travel as fast as 40 miles per hour, but most of the ones at Pea Ridge were going 26 to 27 miles per hour.
The U.S. Lawnmower Racing Association governs lawnmower racing in the United States, Kilbourne said. "It's a big deal," he said, explaining that racers run "hot laps" to determine their position in the heat for the feature race.
Lions Club officers Harry and Judy Palmer said the turnout was good.
Community on 07/27/2016