Lawnmower Races

I went home to Lancaster this past weekend and it turned out this was the weekend of the Lawnmower Races. It started out about 9 years ago as a Charles family event but it’s grown into somewhat of a community event with about 14 lawnmowers, and several more racers with maybe 200 people coming out to watch. I’m enough of a tree hugger to be vaguely uncomfortable at such wastrel activities, but at the same time I’ve always loved speed and things that go fast. So of course the whole time I’m thinking, “I wonder if I could make an electric lawn mower and if they’d let me race it.” I suppose that’s maybe just being a little ornery. They introduced the racers and that made me smile because every one of them had a last name of Charles except for one Harnish and he’s a cousin I think. I double checked with my dad after the race how we’re all related. If I have it right, my great grandfather Ivan Charles was the brother of most of that clans grandfathers, Amos and Abe Charles. So that makes me 2nd cousins once removed to most of them.

They had hot laps from 2:30 to 3 and then two 15 lap heats before the final. Lawnmowers were losing tires and breaking down all over the place. Once again, consistency won out over reckless abandon and speed. The final was a 25 lap race and Larry, the eventual winner, didn’t have the fastest lawn mower but he did have a fast one and didn’t make any mistakes. A few of the young bucks were leading until around lap 15, one engine was on the verge blowing up based upon the tell tale blue smoke screen coming from his vehicle. He ended up spinning out and ending up in the middle of the pack leaving Larry in 2nd place. The leader was pushing pretty hard and around lap 20 he also ended up facing the wrong way and back in the middle of the pack. He refused to accept his position and started pushing even harder. His laps started getting more and more uncontrolled till he eventually lost it and ended up in the bean field. He took off his helmet and hit his steering wheel, obviously frustrated. I had to laugh because I know exactly the sentiment. Something in the Charles genetics makes us very competitive and we tend react one of two ways. We repress it and try not to care or we get carried away with it. I don’t know if you want to play armchair shrink with that or not.