grass fears them

I am not entirely convinced this is the best way to make use of my YouTube account (you know, the account I just rediscovered this evening, after apparently having it for a year and not remembering opening it), but here we go anywise.
Better Half and I decided to immerse ourselves in a little of the local… culture… this evening, and went to a county fair. Pretty standard stuff, but the one thing that stood out was the lawn mower races.
Yes, people race riding lawn mowers. Believe me. And it is just as scary as it sounds.
By way of proof, I offer you the following three videos: Part 1, part 2, and part 3. The quality was kind of shoddy, and a fair bit more was lost on the upload to YouTube, so if you all want the original *.avi files (God alone knows why, though), just drop me a line.
All said, I am not sure which was scarier: (1) the sheer amount of money that just had to go into the speed machines, or (b) the fact that drivers rode them with helmets, and not much else in the way of protection… no kevlar, no leather, no roll cages, nothing. And these little buggers, at least in some classes, went fast.