Harry Sawyer of Greene is hoping to cut a path to victory when he competes in his second STA-BIL National Lawn Mower Association Racing Series event of the summer.

The event will be held Sept. 3 in Mansfield, Ohio.

A couple of weeks ago, Sawyer, in his first season racing lawn mowers, finished fifth among a dozen competitors in the FX division at a national competition in Knoxville, Tenn.

“It was pretty cool, I’ll tell you,” said Sawyer. “We went down there to find out how we compared and to get ideas. We had enough speed, but we didn’t corner as well [as the other mowers]. We were top-heavy. We’re working on that. We’ve taken the mower apart. We’ve dropped the engine through the chassis for a lower center of gravity so that it will corner better.”

He said the atmosphere was memorable.

“It was awesome. It’s like one big family. Everybody’s trying to help everyone else,” said the 37-year-old Sawyer. “They had some nice machinery out there. There were some nice tractors.”

Sawyer and his son, Adam, used to compete in unsanctioned races in Greene with relatives and neighbors. Then his son joined the U.S. Navy and Sawyer was left with a racing mower.

He had been aware that there were lawn mower races at the Thunder Valley Raceway in St. Albans, and he went to buy parts for his mower from Nate Anderson, who owns the track with his wife Marti.

Anderson was selling a racing mower for roughly the same price it would have cost Sawyer to purchase parts. So be bought it and that’s the mower he and his racing partner, Brian Labbe, took to Tennessee after racing it at Thunder Valley.

Labbe actually bought it from Sawyer.

Sawyer had two firsts and two seconds in his class at Thunder Valley.

While they were in Tennessee, they discovered that a mower that had won five national championships in the FX class was for sale.

“The owner, Kevin Penne, injured his back in some kind of accident and can’t race,” said Sawyer.

Labbe purchased the tractor and they may run it in the Mansfield race.

“We’re going to take them both. Which one we’ll race will depend on which one is faster,” said Sawyer.

Sawyer is impressed with the new mower.

“It’s fast. It has a Harley-Davidson carburetor and all kinds of goodies. It’s got a 30 horsepower engine. And the brakes are disc brakes. That’s pretty radical,” said Sawyer.

The other tractor has a 14-15 horsepower engine, according to Sawyer.

Sawyer said he considers himself a “motorhead” and his motivation for racing mowers is a simple one.

“I like trying to make a motor go faster,” said Sawyer, who works on the tractors with Labbe and some local sponsors. “Bill’s Welding in Monmouth does most of our fabricating.”

Bryco Self-Storage in Monmouth, Labbe’s company, is their primary sponsor.

Sawyer admits he would rather tinker on the tractors than sit in the seat, “but somebody has to drive them.”

Labbe, according to Sawyer, will begin driving one of the tractors after the Mansfield event.

In addition to their current two tractors, Sawyer said he and Labbe are also working on two more racing tractors “for next season.”

Mowers can reach up to 50 miles an hour on a straightaway.

Thundering Valley rebounding

Although their track is in its sixth year of existence, Nate and Marti Anderson will say that some people still don’t understand what Thundering Valley Raceway is all about. It is a one-fifth-mile modified kart-racing track.

“If you took a survey on any street in Maine, most people think we rent these karts. People will stop and ask us how much it costs to rent karts,” said Nate Anderson.

The karts at their track reach speeds up to 70 mph, which is a far cry from recreational karts that you can rent.

Racers have to bring their own karts, and they have been averaging 50 per race date this season spanning seven classes.

In addition, the raceway also has lawn mower racing.

Nate Anderson said the rainy spring significantly cut into their business early, costing them seven racing dates among the 17 they have on their schedule.

“Mother Nature has given us a beating,” he said.

However, he was quick to add that the recent stretch of good weather has brought the crowds and karts back.

He said there has been a “huge amount of interest” in lawn mower racing, but it is worth noting for those who want to get into it that it takes a lot of time to build a racing mower.

Thundering Valley racing resumes Saturday night at 6.

There are seven racing dates left, including the season-ending New England Fall Shoot-out on Sept. 25 beginning at 12:30 p.m.