MEXICO — Formula One racers they weren’t, but six intrepid guys braved 85-degree heat and buzzard embarrassment Saturday in the Mexico Invitational Lawn Mower Race and Family Fun Day at the Mexico Rec Park.

Last year’s Andover Old Home Days lawn mower race winner Jason Cole of Andover, won Mexico’s debut race, which consisted of keeping engine parts from falling off during five bumpy laps around a 520-foot dirt track lined with tires.

“That was fun,” racer Matt Shaw of Rumford said afterward, his white T-shirt spattered with mud.

After registering, some racers inspected their competitors’ machines or steered clear of others, like Wentzell’s 11½-horsepower black bomber.

Racing mowers had their blades removed for safety and riders had to wear helmets.

Cole, who races vintage snowmobiles in the winter, raced a Wizard 11-horsepower mower with a top speed of 40 mph.

“Keeping it together is the key,” he said. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re fast or slow. That’s the secret. The whole thing is keeping them running. Most of it’s gearing and changing the pulleys and belts.”

Scott Farrington of Andover, the organizer of this summer’s second annual lawn mower racing and tractor pull events at Andover’s Old Home Days on Aug. 7, said mower racing is just starting to catch on in western Maine.

“We did it last year up to Andover and it was a good time,” he said. “It’s something that will catch on, because it’s something people can afford to do.”

Prior to time trials, Wentzell joked with fellow firefighters, who ran the event.

“You might want me to go last,” he said. “I might oil up the track too much. I don’t think this thing’s going to make it through time trials.”

He was partially right and drew the biggest laughs of the day on his first lap. As Wentzell “cruised” down the track at maybe 5 mph, oil sprayed all over his engine belt, which then came off the motor.

That was when pit crews and some fans happened to notice 15 buzzards circling high above Wentzell as the mower somehow continued through turns three and four, and he was obscured in a thickening cloud of smoke.

“My exhaust fell off before I even got to the first turn,” Wentzell said after Mexico Selectman Peter Merrill and pit crewman Jim White of White Auto Service in Rumford pushed Wentzell’s mower off the track.

White got the belt back on and cleaned the engine somewhat, keeping Wentzell in the race.

A lawn mower wheelie competition followed, wherein anyone who paid $2 to enter had three tries to pop a wheelie on a rusty Gilson mower equipped with a wheelie bar and ride it for distance.

Andrew Gestaut of Byron blew everyone away, riding the mower down a straightaway and into the start of the first turn.

However, that was eclipsed by Calvin Burgess of Mexico, who rode it mostly through the turn and with one wheel on the track in the turn. The other wheel bounced over tires lining the course, much to the crowd’s amusement.

Following an Electric Motor Exhibition ride by 8-year-old Andrew McDonald of Mexico on a plastic all-terrain vehicle and 12-year-old Cameron Shaw’s solo mower race, the main event began.

Just like in the nationals, Cole, the two Shaws, Wentzell, Paul Cayer of Rumford and Burgess all had to run from the starting line to their mowers to begin the first of five laps.

All but Wentzell, who was lapped a few times, got their mowers going and hit the track. Eventually, the Mexico fire chief’s mower revved to life and chugged down the track as Cayer’s backfiring mower passed it for the second time.

Afterward, Selectman Merrill said, “It’s a good starting point to build on. If you build it, they will come.”

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