March 4, 2004 NASGRASS Revs Up Swamp Cabbage Festival By Jerry Gilbert The Enduro field gets lined up for a restart The Swamp Cabbage Festival turned out to be more than anyone had expected. Forty (40) mowers arrived on Sunday to do battle at the home track of NASGRASS in Labelle. The NASGRASS Heat Finals was the big event of the day with 18 mowers starting. The starting line up is based on how the racers finish their heat races. The Heat Finals consisted of the flat heads lined up on the inside and the over heads on the outside. The different motor types gets separated in the end thus allowing a split winner. This put the #66 Work Dogger of Brian Benton starting in the fourth position right behind the yellow #06 of Pat Sullivan. Right from the start things got interesting with Brian chasing Pat until lap seven when Brian used a slower mower as a pick and shot past Pat and holding on for the remaining 9 laps for the win. Pat was passed by the #12 of Rich Yeager, allowing Rich to take runner up and Pat a respectful third place. The #23 of Clay Colquitt to took home the honor’s in the flat head division followed by Tom Macklin, Mayor of the city of Avon Park and the #01 of Larry Rood. The final race of the day, a 30 lap Enduro, was a barn burner with 24 scheduled mowers to start. Due to mechanical problems only 19 mowers were able to start, which was much to the delight of the scorers. The green machine of Mark Violette started on the outside front row and never looked back until on lap 27 when something broke sending him into the infield. Along came Susan Benton from her eighth starting position to pass the 17 and going on to take the checkered. In her run to the front she lapped all mowers but the 12 of Rich Yeager. Also, on lap 17 not only did she take the lead, but she put her husband a lap down. On the start of the race Brian had mechanical problem (master link broke) which put him starting dead last. Even being lapped, Brian managed to pull off a third place finish. There was a shoot-out in the drags with 9 mowers going for the gold. Pat Sullivan and Susan Benton picked the other mowers off until all that was left was the battle of the best. In the end it was a classic battle between Pat and Susan with Susan taking the honors in the first run. In the last showdown Susan was too fired up and when she launched her Purple Toro off the line, she had a slim lead but as luck would have it she over shifted, handing the win over to Pat. The ladies class originally had 4 mowers but Crystal Hicks had mechanical problems and she was unable to start. Even with Susan Benton starting in the last place she more than made up for her error in the Drags by taking the lead on the start and never looking back. Taking the runner up position was #88 Rose Steven and #69 Becky Kuhfleldt coming in third. Seniors class also had mechanical problems sidelining a mower. With Pat Sullivan starting on the pole he never looked back taking the checkered flag with hands down. Finishing second was #11 Rich DeMuzzio and #26 Randy Burroughs taking home third. Stocks had six mowers lined up for the start with #81 Shane Remy on the outside pole, which enabled him to jump right out to a good lead. The #80 machine of John Clute gave a good chase but with four laps to go he fell victim to Mike Remy (Shane's dad) and was able to hold on to a third place finish. Super Stocks had Shane Remy starting on the outside, again keeping his dominance going for back to back wins. He easily won both races and lead every lap. John Clute made up for his error in the stock race by holding second place through the race. The Flat Head heat race showed a good field of mowers with 11 starting. The racing Mayor of Avon Park started in the top spot and never looked back, but then again, coming down the front stretch he was clearly looking in the wrong direction. Maybe he was concerned with his competitors that they were all doing OK. Rounding out the top three was #23 of Clay Colquit followed by #88 of Rose Stevens. Over Head Heats also had 11 mowers starting with the 06 of Pat Sullivan starting on the outside front row. At the drop of the green his yellow rocket shot out like on a mission to Mars and was gone leading flag to flag. Brian Benton on his Work Dogger #66 machine started in the ninth position and slowly moved through the field. On lap 7 he moved into second position but ran out of laps before he could make a challenge. Finishing in third was the #12 of Rich Yeager after starting in the fifth position. The big bad boys of NASGRASS, the Outlaw Twins, had a good field of mowers start their race. It has been a long time coming to have 7 Twins start a race. Starting on the outside front row was Tom "Racin Mayor" Macklin and at the drop of the green he hammered down on his Club Cabet and was gone. Starting in the sixth spot and returning after taking about a year break, was Naples own Chris Sundman. Between Tom and Chris they put on the best race of the day battling bumper to bumper for 15 laps of action. Chris was just waiting for Tom to make a mistake and open the door for him, but Tom knew that he had Chris breathing down his exhaust pipe and ran an excellent race taking home the victory. Chris Sundman did a great job chasing Tom through the whole race but in the end, the lapped mower of Bob Kirkwood got in the way of Chris, causing the mowers to connect and Bob spinning his mower out. For more information on the fast growing motor sport of Mower Racing and photos from Sunday's event check out the NASGRASS web site at www.NASGRASS.com Have an opinion on this story? 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