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June 20, 2009

Father-son duo make tracks with racing mower

By Michael Kormos The Corsicana Daily Sun Sat Jun 20, 2009, 08:57 PM CDT

Today is Father’s Day and as far as father son projects go this one takes the cup. Bill Goodrich and son Ben of Chatfield took a broken-down Husky lawnmower and turned it into a Pro Stock racer. They drove it in the Derrick Days parade and even entered it in the car show but it didn’t place well because, according to Ben, it isn’t a car.

“Ben is a good kid,” Bill said. “He is very astute, he was the valedictorian of his eighth-grade class at Rice, and I thought it was a good idea that we take on a hands-on, mechanical project together so he will at least know how to change a tire when he gets older.”

“We took our old mower, which was basically a piece of junk, and rebuilt the engine to get it running again.” Ben said. “Then we decided to paint flames up the hood. My dad works at Stewart Collision Center and is really good at painting and body work.”

Other details of the mower include Ford emblems on the front and back, a variety of racing stickers, a Hurst shifter, a custom steering wheel and tachometer, a nitrous bottle, and a deck lifter topped with a chrome skull named Bob.

“The brake pedal is a sawed-off piston head, the key chain is even an old spark plug gap gauge,” Bill said. “We have paid attention to every detail.

“We try to add a little bit each year; it gives us something to do in the winter when baseball is in the off-season and there’s not much to do. This year we are going to add a wheelie bar and it really will be able to do wheelies. The most important thing is, it still mows.”

Ben, 14, is going to be a freshman at Rice High School this fall and plays select baseball for the Ennis Lions. He lives with Bill, mom Denise, who teaches sixth grade at Rice, sisters Maya, 15, and Lacy, 4, but is spending most of the summer with his grandmother Margy Cooper of Corsicana who recently retired from First Finance. “She is retired now so I stay with her most of the summer helping with yard work,” Ben said. This summer Ben said he will be playing baseball and studying for UIL history with practice sessions held every other week.

Lawnmower racing has become America’s new “grass roots” motor sport. Racers turn a weekend chore into a competitive sport and there is even a U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association with competitions televised on Fox Sports Net and the Outdoor Channel. There has also been a video game released called “Lawnmower Racing Mania” for Xbox and PC.

On the Net:

www.letsmow.com

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Click here to e-mail Michael Kormos.

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