LOCKE - When Charlie Chaffee and Mark Howard heard that a GrassCar Mowersports racing event would be held in their town, the pair knew right away that they had to attend.

They had been thinking of building their own racing lawnmower and believed the event would be a great place to get ideas.

“We have heard about them but had never had the chance to attend,” said Chaffee during the racing event held Sunday afternoon at the Locke Fire Department Fairgrounds. “It's things like this that really bring a community together and it's for a good cause.”

“Who would have thought that you could have so much fun with a lawnmower?” Howard asked.

Both Chaffee and Howard are hoping to race during the next season.

For four-year veteran racer Chris Kolmsee, the event is more than just a hobby.

A salesman by trade, Kolmsee said that it is the diversity of backgrounds as well as the charitable causes that has kept his passion for the sport alive.

“I am not a man that has a lot of extra time for charities,” he said. “But with GrassCar I can have a good time and work for charity all at the same time. How much better can it get than that?”

He also said that it is one of the rare sports where you can find moms, dads, grandparents and children all involved in the same sport.

“In what other sport can you find such diversity?” he asked.

GrassCar Mowersports began five years ago, when founding father Mark Cuddeback, who also serves as flagman, wanted to begin his own lawnmower racing club.

The club holds racing events to help various causes and is strictly a not-for-profit organization.

“We mostly raise funds for various fire departments in the Southern Cayuga area,” Cuddeback said. “But now and then there will be an individual who needs help, such as a cancer patient, or accident victim and then we will donate to them. Today we are racing for the Locke Fire Department.”

Ron Stiles, pit boss and co-founder of the event, said that the charitable causes that the sport helps makes it all worthwhile.

“It is a great sport. It isn't something you hear of everyday,” he said. “I think what really catches people off guard is that you don't normally see a riding lawnmower all souped up and going 30 miles per hour.”

And with a slogan like “Rednecks racing for a cause,” clubmembers said that they will be racing for many years to come.