SPIRIT LAKE - Mowing the lawn can be tedious, hot, sweaty work.

But racing custom riding lawnmowers down the main drag of Spirit Lake?

Well, that's just good ol' North Idaho fun.

Father's Day was celebrated in small-town style when the 13th annual Big Back-in returned for the season. The day's activities began at noon on two closed-off blocks of Spirit Lake's Maine Street, where crowds of people gathered to mingle and capture the event.

"The Back-in brings out the monster mower in local residents," said event coordinator Marc Kroetch, who has been instrumental in helping promote and organize the event since its beginning. "The entries include dragster replicas, complete with replica hood scoops and blowers found on real cars."

Mowers of all design could be seen behind the starting line as the one-on-one races began. Some mowers looked like go-karts, some like mini-tractors, but they all were there for the same reason - to carry their drivers to mower glory.

The classes of lawnmowers ranged from "stock" (no modifications) to "super modified" (attaining speeds of 36 mph and above), with "stock show" and "modified" in between.

A complete list of rules and regulations is listed on the Big Back-in website, www.bigbackin.com.

Kroetch said the idea for the Big Back-in came from mower races in Smelterville.

"We attended their race and it was so much fun," he said, "we took the mayor up there and said, 'Look, this is a pretty benign thing, let's do this!'"

The Spirit Lake Chamber of Commerce hosted Sunday's event, which was the first in a series of five mower races that will take place through the summer in North Idaho. The Big Back-in is a fundraising effort to benefit the cities that host the races. According to Kroetch, almost $100,000 has been raised to help finance area park and recreation departments since the mower races began 13 years ago.

Autumn Massender, 30, and her husband Dean, both of Spirit Lake, help run the Big Back-in. They have been involved for at least five years. Autumn rides the "Iron Horse" mower and Dean rides the "War Horse." They built their custom plastic pony mowers themselves in their Big Back-in garage.

Autumn said she used to work in the Linger Longer Lounge in Spirit Lake and previously bartended the event, but had the drive to get directly involved.

"We built me a mower, and now I'm racing," she said, smiling. Autumn was the "all over points" winner in the modified stock class last year, and won all but one race.

Friends Joe Hill, 40, of Spirit Lake, and Chris Lowe, 33, of Liberty Lake, stood back from the crowd at Third Avenue and Maine Street as they sipped their beers and shared some laughs.

Hill lives a couple blocks from Maine Street and said one of the mowers, the "Tow Truck," woke him early that morning. He said he likes the fast mower, which goes up to 60 miles per hour, and he enjoys the camaraderie of the Big Back-in.

"I know everybody, so it's nice to have everybody that you know here in one place," Hill said.

Lowe said he had never been to a lawnmower racing event prior to Sunday.

"There's nothing like this anywhere else that I've seen," he said. "This is very unique. I'm just kind of watching it and absorbing it." The two were in agreement that the day was meant for "lots of beer drinking and having a good time," Hill said.

People milled along the sidelines as racers buzzed along the street, each mower personalized and unique.

"It's just great hometown fun," said Mike Richmond, 39, of Spirit Lake, who was attending the races for the third year. He doesn't ride, but a few of his friends do. "The thing that's nice about it is everyone is welcome and it brings the community together more than town meetings," he said.

The Lawn Tractor Racing Association 2013 schedule is as follows: July 21 in Rathdrum at 11 a.m.; July 27 in Priest River at 2 p.m.; Aug. 17 in Ponderay at 11 a.m.; Aug.24 in Oldtown at 11 a.m.

Info: www.bigbackin.com