30 mowers expected for Saturday races

Rodney LePoidevin found a low-budget way to get into racing that’s also allowed him to involve teenage sons Patrick and Brian.

All three race riding lawnmowers and will compete in the 3rd Annual Pass in the Grass lawnmower races at 6 p.m. Saturday, June 6, at Boundary County Fairgrounds in Bonners Ferry.

“We’ve had some good bonding moments,” Rodney LePoidevin said about the time spent getting their mowers ready.

Close to 30 racers are expected Saturday, which is twice as many as last year, said Rob Tompkins, a member of the local group of drivers known unofficially as Red Neck Racing.

“We as a group have been traveling around racing with other groups (and some of those drivers are coming here to race).” Tompkins said.

Drivers are expected from Potlach and Port Hadlock, Morton and Omak, Wash.

“It will be a good time and we’ll be putting on a good show,” Tompkins said.

Red Neck Racing is selling raffle tickets at $1 each or 20 for $10 for a mower, which is on display at Car Quest on the South Hill. The winner’s name will be drawn during the Rod Benders car show at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 6, in the downtown.

“If they show up with a helmet, they can race it,” Tompkins said.

As for the racing LePoidevins, dad got into it first and then last year involved sons Patrick, 17, and Brian, 15.

Rodney LePoidevin has always enjoyed racing, but couldn’t really afford it until he got into lawnmower racing.

“It’s a real inexpensive way to go racing compared to all the other racing,” he said. “It’s very low budget.”

 The stock class is the most basic. Drivers compete with a mower used to mow the lawn.

“That’s the slowest,” said LePoidevin, owner of Panhandle Nursery on Bonners Ferry’s North Bench. “It’s basically just taking the blades off the mowing deck.”

In super stock, drivers can change out pulleys to make mowers go faster.

“Some of those go upwards of 30 mph,” he said.

In the modified class, the mower can be lowered to the ground and pulleys can be changed for increased speeds. The mower has a stock engine, but the carburetor can be beefed up and the steering wheel can be turned into handle bars. Some of those mowers go up to 55 mph.

Finally, there’s the open class.

‘You can go internally into the engine and soop them up,” LePoidevin said.

He will compete in the modified division and his sons will run in super stock. Patrick races a late 1970s Craftsman, while Brian completes with a mid-1980s MTD.

“We get to learn some mechanics,” Rodney LePoidevin said working on their mowers. “I’ve learned a lot from putting all of these together. The boys are learning too.”

Youth, women and men can race and must wear a helmet, boots or shoes above the ankle, and a long-sleeved shirt. For rules, go to www.boundarycountyid.org/fair/mower_races/rulesprn.htm.

Tickets for the lawnmower races are $5 for anyone 10 and older, $2 for 6- to 9-year-olds and free for anyone 5 and under. For information, call Tompkins at 267-2599.