The town of Ellerbe has one of the most inventive pastimes in the Central Park region - lawn mower racing.

If you think this is a slow-moving sport think again. The Ellerbe's Lions Club, the group that acts as the host and sponsor of the races, claims that the racers can run as fast as 60 miles per hour. Racers have to get close to the ground on turns in order to avoid flipping their vehicles and there is a constant effort to improve the lawn mowers for better stability and speed. Races are competitive enough that the Lion's Club purchased equipment from NASCAR that allows them to track the number of laps for each lawn mower and help decide the winner in photo finishes.

The Lion's Club has videos of some races and Central Park's YouTube site has some slide shows.

Lawn mower is growing in popularity, as evidenced by the fact that Ellerbe (pop. 1021) will at least double in size on racing day. The sport is becoming professionalized with a U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association and even the release of a lawn mower racing video game last year.

This is cool stuff and worth a trip to Ellerbe with the family on Saturday evening. The races start at 6:30pm and admission is cheap -- $4 for adults and $2 for kids. If you miss the race on Saturday you can catch another one in two weeks. Races will run for every two weeks through the middle of October. Enjoy!