Updated 1 p.m. today
Information was provided to the Peninsula Daily News for a story on Hadlock Days appearing below.
The Salmon Bake is at 5 p.m. Friday, July 10 at Hadlock House Restaurant and Lounge, 141 Chimacum Road. The chain saw-carved “welcome bear” drawing will be held at 2 p.m.
Sunday, July 12, after the racing is completed and the trophies are presented. Raffle tickets for the drawing will be sold now through the event. Music will be played from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, July 12, only at the Hadlock Days Classic Car Show at Ferino’s Pizzeria, 846 Ness Corner Road.
Earlier report:
PORT HADLOCK — A YouTube video shot last July opened the door to discovery for the Hadlock Day’s lawn mower racing event.
After officials with the Maryland-based American Racing Mower Association — or ARMA — saw the video, they contacted Lloyd Crouse to invite the Hadlock racing organization to join the national association.
“We now are national,” said Crouse, a 67-year-old Hadlock lawn mower racer and the main engine behind the community’s racetrack on the former A.J. Hill concrete batch plant site off Ness Corner Road.
“They agreed to let us have a regional race here.”
The fourth annual Hadlock Days runs July 10-12 and for the first time will have most of its events and vendors concentrated on the A.J. Hill site.
A Hadlock chapter of ARMA has been formed. It is known as the Super Stock Lawn Mower Association, Crouse said, with another chapter already in Omak, eastern Washington.
Membership to ARMA qualifies the Hadlock racing group for the $3 million in liability insurance coverage it offers at low cost. The insurance is needed to put on exhibitions at county fairs.
Races at Clallam Fair
“Now we have fairs calling us up,” an enthusiastic Crouse said.
As a result, Crouse said, the Hadlock lawn mower racing group will race on the second day of the Clallam County Fair. The fair is scheduled in the Clallam County Fairgrounds in Port Angeles Aug. 20-23. The Hadlock group will race lawn mowers at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 21.
Competing in races in Ellensburg and Oregon are also in the discussion phases, according to Crouse, who has spent most of his spare time over the past two years building the banked track behind Bloomers Landing restaurant.
Last year’s Hadlock Days lawn mower races drew more than 1,200 to the track where Canadian racer Gerald Anderson won the event after he was clocked at a straight-away top speed of 40 mph.
Anderson is expected to return to race this year, Crouse said, and local racers will be gunning for the “outlaw” class racer from Chilliwack, British Columbia.
About 50 racers from throughout the Northwest will compete this year on a track that Crouse said will allow up to 2,000 spectators.
Port Hadlock resident Glenn Wiggins, at 79 the oldest of the old-timers to compete in lawn mower races during Hadlock Days, is finishing up new bleachers for many of those spectators.
Wiggins will return to compete against other old-timers this year.
Viva Davis, Hadlock Days Association president, said new to Hadlock Days this year is a beer and wine garden.
A hayride shuttle will take visitors to the A.J. Hill site, Davis said.
“It will be pulled by a truck to transport people from all over Hadlock to the site,” she said.
Other events
The Hadlock Days Parade, which will run from 11 a.m. to noon July 11, will travel north along Chimacum Road, starting at Well Road and turning west onto Ness Corner Road to D Street.
The Classic Car Show will run from noon to 3 p.m. July 12, along with music at Ferino’s Pizza parking lot on Ness Corner Road.
Lawn mower racing will run from noon to 4 p.m. July 11 and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday.
A chain saw artist will cut a welcoming bear statue that will be raffled at 4 p.m. July 11. Proceeds of the sale will go to the Hadlock Days Association to cover expenses for the event.
Hadlock Days will open at 5 p.m. July 10, with a salmon bake at the Inn at Port Hadlock, off Oak Bay Road before the state Highway 116 turnoff to Indian Island.
Davis said the event is seeking vendors and volunteers.
To volunteer or apply as a vendor, phone Davis at 360-301-0791 or Crouse at 206-817-8045.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
