Lawn Mowers

Few people think of riding lawn mowers as high-performance racing vehicles. But they will soon if Gerry Smith has his way. Smith is the president of the U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Assn. The group sponsored the Sta-bil West Coast Regional Championship lawn mower races at the Antelope Valley Fair on Saturday. "It's a great way to have fun without paying thousands of dollars," Smith said, "and you don't really risk your life either."

No need to go to a smoke-filled arena that reeks of stale beer to watch grown men slam into one another. World Class Wrestling is coming to the Antelope Valley Fair and Alfalfa Festi val. The much-maligned professional spectator sport is just one of a plethora of offerings that include the unusual and the expected at the 56th annual fair, which begins an 11-day run today at the fairgrounds in Lancaster. World Class Wrestling gets under way at 6 p.m. Sunday, culminating with the U.S.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday that it will reach into the nation's garden sheds to regulate the source of about 10% of air pollution: lawn mowers, chain saws, leaf blowers and other garden equipment. EPA Administrator Carol Browner, standing on the manicured lawn of the Washington Monument in a driving spring rain, said that the federal government intends to impose unprecedented national emission standards on all new gas-powered garden tools sold in the United States.

It started as the routine recovery of a stolen truck, but when police stepped into the back yard of the house in Canoga Park, they found a garage stockpiled with lawn mowers, edgers and other equipment believed to be stolen from landscapers. On Friday, as they were still sorting through all the equipment, detectives said they had broken up a ring they believed preyed on professional landscapers by following them home from jobs and stealing their trucks and equipment as they slept.

No matter how smoothly your lawn mower hums this summer, eventually the day will come when it coughs and sputters its way to the garbage heap. But is that an environmentally responsible way to discard it? The Outdoor Power Equipment Institute suggests five ways to handle the disposal dilemma. First, decide if the machine can still be used or has some value. Then, choose the most appropriate method for disposal: * Donate it.

Lawn mower racing, a sport developed by and for a suburban lunatic fringe in England, may be catching on in America. Can corporate sponsorship be far behind? Don't look now. In Chicago, the U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Assn. has been formed as the official sanctioning body for this "little-known yet exciting sport." Its inaugural event, with a budget of more than $100,000, will be the Sta-Bil National Lawn Mower Racing Championships, to be held Sept. 5 at a fairgrounds in Grayslake, Ill.

A man was charged with drunken driving after riding a lawn mower into the path of a freight train, police said. Michael Runyon had used the 5-horsepower riding mower for transportation after his license was suspended for drunken driving five years ago, said Detective Joe Cervantez. "I don't know how he survived," said Dale VanDusen, who witnessed the wreck last week. "It's a miracle."

Whether you're a gardening novice or have a green thumb, it's easy to be dazzled by the ads telling you it's time for a new lawn mower. The way some models are designed and marketed, you'd think the seller should be giving you a pink slip and registration along with your bill of sale. However, there are a number of things to think over before paying between $150 and $800 for a machine that can either keep your lawn healthy or kill it. The main consideration is the type of lawn.