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Thundering Valley Raceway, the go-kart track in St. Albans, has continued its growth under husband-and-wife Nate and Marti Anderson of Lamoine, who built the track and opened it five years ago.
But the facility needs lawn mowers.
No, the grass doesn’t need to be cut.
The Andersons announced their intentions to offer (riding) lawn mower racing last year.
They have had three race dates so far this season but nobody has come forward to race their lawn mower.
The fourth of their six lawn mower race dates will be Sunday beginning with practice from 10 a.m.-noon. Racing begins at 12:30 and there are six classes ranging from everyday riding mower minus the cutting blades to an FX division for souped-up lawn mowers.
“We’ve joined the United States Lawn Mower Racing Association and we have the only chapter of that organization north of New York,” Marti Anderson said. “We’ve talked to several groups. We’ve been to around 120 different small engine and lawn mower shops over the last year. We’ve talked to several groups.
“The word is slowly getting out,” added Anderson. “There is a lot of interest. People are building [racing] lawn mowers.”
The Andersons are patient and understand things don’t happen overnight.
“The first year of the track, we had 14 go-karts. Now we’ve got 50,” said Marti. “We understand that it needs to be built up over time.”
If any Sultans of Swath do show up, they will run a 15-lap heat race around the quarter-of-a-mile track and then a 25-lap feature.
Trophies are awarded to the top five in every division.
Marti Anderson said anybody who does two lawn mower races at their track automatically qualifies to run in any national race.
She said it “isn’t difficult” to transform a rider-mower into a racing mower.
As for the go-karting, she said they are having a banner year.
“We get 40-50 go-karts every week and we’ve added a class. We have eight classes now and that’s the most we’ve ever had,” Anderson said.
The new class is a senior division for racers 35 years of age and older.
The other classes are the kid karts (beginners, ages 5-7), box stock (beginners, ages 7-10), sportsman (10-12), senior sportsman (12-15), junior sportsman (ages 7-10 with at least one year of racing experience), champ animal (13 and over with Briggs and Stratton 6.5 horsepower engines) and the mini Winston Cup car division.
Go-kart racing begins at 6 p.m. on Saturdays.
Mike Rowe is fine after car fire
Veteran racer Mike Rowe of Turner is none the worse for wear after his car caught on fire during Saturday night’s Pro All-Stars Series race at White Mountain Motorsports Park in New Hampshire.
“It’s the worse fire I’ve ever had,” said the 52-year-old Rowe. “I felt the heat. I got a little sunburn on my shoulder but not bad.”
He drove his car to the pits “and a couple of guys helped me out of the car.”
“I was more worried about the other cars than myself,” said Turner.
The accident that led to the fire occurred when “I got into Louie (Mechalides). I ran up over his left rear wheel” and Rowe’s car spun and got hit by Scott Watts.
“A piece of metal went through my fuel cell,” Rowe said.
He was making his debut in a Carleton Robie-owned Monte Carlo and said, “I feel bad for Carleton Robie. It was my first time in his car. That’s the way it goes [sometimes].”
He will run Robie’s backup car at the next PASS race on Aug. 1 at Wiscasset Raceway.
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