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A British driver reached speeds of more than 87 miles per hour… on a lawnmower. The previous record holder is an American. His name is Bob Cleveland and he spoke with The World’s Marco Werman.

U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association

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MARCO WERMAN:  Somehow this seems like a record that should have stayed right here in the U.S. A., but a British man on a lawnmower has raced into the record books with a new speed record.  It happened this past weekend on the Pendine Sands in Wales.  Don Wales rode his jet red mower more than 87 miles per hour.  That broke the record that American Bobby Cleveland set at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah four years ago.  Mr. Cleveland was in Wales to watch this weekend’s event.

BOBBY CLEVELAND:  Well it took place on the Pendine Sands.  They say that’s about the only spot where there’s long, straight area for them to go these speeds, but it’s kind of a historical place where a lot of speed records were set.

WERMAN: When these records are set and when they’re broken like it was this weekend, are contestants actually cutting the grass?  Are the drivers cutting any lawns?

CLEVELAND: Actually before each day, they went up to the grassy knoll and they cut grass before they went down and did the run on the sands.

WERMAN: I see, then is the blade on the mower taken off so they can maximize speed?

CLEVELAND: No.  That’s a safety thing so we take the blades off, definitely aerodynamics plus safety.  So after we cut grass we just pull that off and then we go down and try to go at speeds.

WERMAN: Right and when you’re doing that little test run on the lawn, how fast are you going?

CLEVELAND: Oh, maybe one mile an hour, maybe.

WERMAN: Okay, so it’s really just kind of focusing on cutting grass as opposed to speed.

CLEVELAND: It has something to do with the Guinness Book and that was one of the requirements, was that it had to cut grass the same day.  The problem I have about the Salt Flats is there is no grass.  If I cut grass out there, I have to take it with me.

WERMAN: Right.  So did your record not actually count for the Guinness Book because you didn’t cut grass?

CLEVELAND: No, actually at the time they wouldn’t recognize it.  That was in ’06, but since then they’ve come around, so we’ve just been looking for a reason to go back to the Salt Flats and go faster.  Well now we have it because they did set the speed at 87.833.  We got to do some good work to get up to those speeds, but they was talking about doing 100 and I was really nervous about that, but 87, 88, that’s something I might can handle.

WERMAN: What possessed you, Bobby, to start this?

CLEVELAND: Well actually I work at a lawnmower manufacturer for 27 years.  So I was working in engineering, so every day we was tearing up and fixing up lawnmowers and if we got any few pieces left over, we might take them and modify them a little bit and make a lawnmower go fast.  So I’ve been doing this since ’76.

WERMAN: Well, I got to ask you, isn’t it pretty dangerous, cruising across salt flats at 100 miles per hour on a vehicle where the driver has such a high center of gravity?

CLEVELAND: Well that was another thing that was a little different between theirs and mine is that they lowered the seat down into the fenders, which made it a lot more steady and safer.  Where mine is still up there, which is one of our racing rules with the United States Lawnmower Racing Association.  So I’m going to stay up there because mine still really looks like a lawnmower and definitely being that high, it’s top heavy, so you definitely want to be going straight and not turning.

WERMAN: Something that just struck me, you said United States Lawnmower Racing Association.  There is such a thing?

CLEVELAND: Oh yes, the USLMRA, it’s lets mow dot com.  You can go on and most anybody can do it.  We call it the poor man’s NASCAR over at home because it’s something you can afford and you don’t spend a whole lot of money, you throw it in the back of the pick up truck and go out there and race.

WERMAN: And Bobby, I trust your advice to our listeners is get your lawn looking pretty, but don’t make it pretty real fast.

CLEVELAND: That’s right because we might sneak in there and mess it up.

WERMAN: American lawnmower racer Bobby Cleveland, and former record holder on the lawnmower, thank you very much.

CLEVELAND: Well thank you for having me and I look forward to talking to you again.

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