Off to the Races

Old Farts Racing competes at Patton Lawn Mower Races

There’s one rule for joining Old Farts Racing, a lawn mower racing team in Patton, Missouri: you have to be 65 years old or older.

It’s a club that was formed approximately five or six years ago by Leonard Crites, Bob Crites, Carl Crites, Rick Fox, Wayne Goodwin and Vernon Yount. Inspired by Carl’s and his grandson’s racing, the other members decided they wanted to get involved in the sport, too. Due to Leonard’s, Bob’s and Carl’s health issues, Fox, Goodwin and Yount now comprise the active racers on the team.

Vernon Yount, left, watches his friend Wayne Goodwin complete a time trial before racing. Tyler Graef - tgraef@semissourian.com

“I like the competition,” says Yount, 73, who lives in Patton. “And I just like to race. The adrenaline part of it, you know? Makes you feel younger, maybe, huh?”

Yount first started racing lawnmowers seven or eight years ago, after watching the event in Allenville. With his wife’s blessing, he decided to get into the sport. Now, he runs his lawnmower in the General Class C class.

A lawn mower crosses the finish line during a heat race in Patton, Missouri, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019. Tyler Graef - tgreaf@semissourian.com

Fox’s story is similar: he first got involved with lawn mower racing after Lenoard let him drive his lawn mower for a couple of laps around the track.

Vernon Yount, Rick Fox and Wayne Goodwin listen as an organizer addresses drivers before racing.Tyler Graef - tgraef@semissourian.com

“I fell in love with it,” says Fox, 69, from Glenn Carbon, Illinois. “I love the excitement of it. Every time it comes up to my race, I just get butterflies in my stomach. I want to get out there. It’s like, here we go.”

The races work like this: each racer does a time trial and is placed in a class according to his or her time. Class A includes the racers with the fastest time trials, Class D the racers with the slowest, and racers in the B and C classes fall somewhere in between. Next comes the heat race, which determines where a racer will be positioned in the feature race. The feature race is the one in which racers can win points and plaques. Each feature race usually includes 10 to 12 laps around the track. If lawn mowers breakdown during a race, it’s up to the racer to get it fixed before the next race of the evening, in order to be able to participate.

Although Yount says he spends a lot of time “piddling” with his lawnmowers — he has approximately 15 to 20 mowers at his house, although most are in pieces, he says — he doesn’t work on souping up his motors like many of the racers do. He says he likes racing a little bit slower because “it’s more enjoyable when you know you’re not going to get somebody run over you.”

That’s the opposite of Leonard’s mower Fox has been running recently, however: the engine was shipped to North Dakota to be built up by outfitters there, made up like a dragster.

Each racer’s lawnmower is named with a number: Yount’s is 419 because his birthday is April 19, Goodwin’s is 42 because it was the number on a new chassis he bought and Fox’s mower is 49, which he chose because he was born in 1949.

The sport doesn’t come without risks, no matter what class you’re racing in, though: at a recent race, the dirt track was rough and the steering on Yount’s mower broke, causing him to run into the fence while going close to 40 mph. And in the past, Yount has broken collar bone and gotten “some bad bruises” from racing.

Still, as an ever-fierce competitor, he’s not giving up any advice for his strategy in the races.

“Some of it’s secrets that I ain’t telling nobody,” he says, laughing. “If I did that, there’d be a whole lot more people finish the race.”

One thing each member of the team agrees on is how much fun the races are; they encourage everyone to come to a race to see for themselves.

“Come out and experience the thrill. It’s fun,” says Goodwin, 74, from Waterloo, Illinois. “If they come out and saw it, they would come back, trust me.”

Although Yount says people don’t usually say anything about his age in relation to racing lawn mowers, he realizes it would be easier if he were younger. He’s not letting age stop him from doing what he loves, however. He counsels people to stay in shape.

“I’d like to go back 30 years and do it. You know, my bones just hold up a lot better if I was 30 years younger,” Yount says, laughing. “But I mean, I tell you what, I’m here to enjoy what I’ve done. You know what, hey, I like to do it, and that’s what I want to do as long as I can.”