Lawn Mower Racing
So Here is the first one. Lawn Mower Racing. You heard me. Our church-wide picnic has always been a highlight of our calendar year, but most of the time the young families would stick around after the lunch and play and the older generations would tend to head home out of the sun and to catch a nap. 
One of my trips back out to Washington State I went back to see my sister in Mansfield, a small wheat farming community in North Central Washington. They have “Mansfield Play Days” during the summer and it was in full swing. During the festivities were some lawn mower races and I fell in love. Check out the first year out and the wreck 1:00 into the video below. Worth your time. Basically with some simple modifications you could be running fast and with some more time involved…you could be on your way to the ER. Great fun for all involved. So I brought the idea up during one of our “fusion-of-the-forehead” meetings with the staff and we all thought it was worth a try. And the rest is fun history. The first event was held in May of 2006 and we have had races every year…uh, except ’08 when a tornado blasted us and 250+ homes/businesses here in Stuttgart, just a little bitter about that. We have learned and tweaked it as we go along. We have tried oval track, kidney-shaped, drag races, push-lawnmower footraces, stock lawnmower classifications, and who could have the most parts fall off during a race. Ha The Modified Classes are the most fun and by far the most popular. 
So far it has been friendly fun and the only rules we have regarding the Lawnmower is that is has to have a stock lawnmower engine and lawnmower “rear end”. We did have one almost top 50 mph…but it couldn’t turn too good. All in redneck fun…but it fairly cheap fun for a great fellowship together.