PORT HADLOCK — While the Hadlock Days festival struggles to survive, the attraction that has drawn the big crowds during the past two years — lawn mower racing — is going national.
A group of three Port Hadlock residents led by Sandy Hummel is putting out a call for help from volunteers and sponsors to ensure that Hadlock Days goes on in July.
“Last year’s Hadlock Days was left owing money to the community,” Hummel said.
“We don’t even know if Hadlock Days will happen this year,” she said.
But the lawn mower races will go on no matter what, said Lloyd Crouse, founder of the Hadlock Days lawn mower races, who is still making improvements to the track he built three years ago in a former gravel pit.
The track Crouse constructed north of Ness Corner Road will host a national event sanctioned by the Maryland-based American Racing Mower Association, or ARMA.
“This will be the first national points race on the West Coast,” Crouse said Friday.
“I’m expecting over 100 racers.”
The Hadlock Days festival owes about $2,600 to Hadlock Building Supply and Goodman Sanitation Services, Hummel said.
Even if the festival is canceled this year, Hummell said, the organization will make every effort to pay back the debt owed and bring it back in 2012.
Hummell, Sandy Hampton and Nancy Woffenden have been meeting regularly to keep the festival going.
“What we’re hoping is to get more volunteers and more involvement from the community,” Hummel said.
The group’s next meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Jefferson County Library, at the corner of Ness’ Corner Road and Cedar Avenue.
Hummell said the East Jefferson Rotary Club has shown support for the Hadlock Days Parade, which could still go on if all else fails.
The races have been part of the Hadlock Days festival for six years.
The Hadlock lawn mower racing group, Super Stock Lawn Mower Racing Association, went national in 2009, becoming a chapter of ARMA, which claims 800 members.
The Super Stock Lawn Mower Racing Association now includes members from Idaho and British Columbia to secure affordable insurance rates, Crouse said.
He expects to see some 20 East Coast racers travel to Port Hadlock for the national race, as well as competitors from Texas and Alabama and from throughout the Pacific Northwest, including some from Oregon.
Meanwhile, festival organizers hope to raise funds from a raffle to give away $300 in QFC groceries.
Vendor support also is needed for the festival to go on, Hummell said.
Hummell can be reached at 360-379-9292 or 206-817-8092.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.