The debate over what the best type of car in dirt racing is has gone on since the dawn of the sport, and will continue until the day it ceases to exist. The Posse will say sprint cars, Illinois fans will say late models, Iowans will say stock cars, and so on. But there’s a small-but-mighty group of racers that will give you a very unique answer to this question: lawn mowers.

Wilkesboro Dragway, the second most famous seven-decade-old racetrack located right off of U.S. 421 in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, decided over the winter to try something new. A corner of the property was cleared off, and a tiny dirt track for lawn mower racing was constructed. The Belt Burners Mower Racing Association was formed to sanction races at the new track, with racing scheduled for select Friday nights to fit in with Thursday night test & tune and weekend bracket racing at the dragstrip.

The BBMRA shares a common rulebook with the Rebels and Rednecks Mower Racing Association (yes, that’s the official name) to encourage as much crossover participation as possible across the southeast. Much like any other dirt track, Wilkesboro runs roughly a dozen different classes ranging from the entry-level, cost-conscious stock divisions all the way up to the fastest mowers you can imagine.

The classes in mower racing fall into one of two primary categories: Stock and Modified. Essentially, if it came on the mower when it left the factory, its allowed in a Stock division, otherwise, Modified only.

The very first line of performance-related rules in the book reads “Modified mowers can run the fuel of their choosing.” So if you’ve ever wanted to dump nitromethane into your Kubota, crank it up and see what happens, there’s a class for that.

The sport of lawn mower racing started in the United Kingdom in the 1960s the same way most new series, classes, and rule changes originate. A few friends gathered around, complained to each other that racing was too expensive, and decided to try and make it cheaper. They traded their cars for mowers, and a new genre of racing was born.

The sport soon made its way across the pond, with mower racing taking root in the eastern United States in the 1970s. Fast forward fifty years, and the sport now features a national tour in the United States Lawn Mower Racing Association, as well as numerous regional sanctioning bodies such as the BBMRA in Wilkesboro.

Matt Hartline serves as the club’s treasurer and competes on-track as well. Despite having a full plate of responsibilities on race nights, his resume in the sport is rather short.

“I’m brand new to it,” Hartline said in the pits prior to his debut. “Looked like a lot of fun.”

Hartline races in the Modified Single class which, as you may have guessed, is the single-cylinder variety of the larger Modified category.

“I’ll be running with a little faster machines,” the former ATV racer said in comparison to the Stock side of the fence. “Then you have the Open class, which is really fast. But there’s a lot of cool mowers down through there.”

The similarities between mower racing and traditional dirt track racing are plentiful. For one, the infield tires that drivers love to hate are present in mower racing as well, and hitting one can ruin your night just as quickly.

The order of events also looks very familiar. Each class gets a few hot laps to start the night, with features to follow. One unique aspect, though, is the drivers meeting, which is held in between hot laps and the main events while the track is being worked on.

While the BBMRA may not have IMCA levels of efficiency with their race programs, race officials do try to ensure that the show moves along in a timely manner. Every main event has a 20 minute time limit, mowers that are late to staging start at the tail of the field, and drivers are black flagged if they are responsible for three cautions on the night. While we aren’t here to name names, everyone reading this probably knows of a full-sized dirt track that could take a page out of the mower racing playbook.

Six decades have passed since the advent of mower racing, and the sport looks to be one of the rare cases where the goal of making motorsports more affordable has been reached. The vast majority of mowers in every class were brought to the track on an open trailer pulled behind a pickup or SUV, and the relatively low maintenance requirements mean it is entirely possible to go mower racing as a one-man band without any extra crew help.

So if you ever want to change up your usual weekend racing plans, check to see what the mower racing scene looks like in your area. You might just discover a new favorite motorsport.