Members of Hawke's Bay Racing Lawnmower Club in action at Hawke's Bay Car Club in Bridge Pā.
Members of Hawke's Bay Racing Lawnmower Club in action at Hawke's Bay Car Club in Bridge Pā.
A club of Hawke’s Bay motorheads on the cutting edge of racing has grown so much that members are looking for a new racecourse.
Hawke’s Bay Racing Lawnmower Club started in 2015 “with about three or four guys just driving around modified lawnmowers” according to member and committee treasurer RobMarr.
The club has been racing on a small course at Hawke’s Bay Car Club in Bridge Pā since then, but recently its membership numbers have grown to the point that a bigger course is needed to accommodate everyone.
“At the moment, with the growth we have, it’s just getting out of hand, so we’re trying to find a new place to call home,” Marr said.
“We’re pretty much open to anything, it just needs to be bigger than we’ve got.”
Despite the optics, they won’t be mowing your lawn while they race.
Marr said the ideal track would be flat and hilly, but the ground would have to be smooth because the lawnmowers don’t have suspension and the drivers feel every bump.
The new track would also need to be out of earshot of neighbours as the lawnmowers do make quite a bit of noise because of their exhausts.
“At the club we try and keep everyone happy and be considerate to others,” Marr said.
The club currently has about 12 regular members, but Marr said the number is growing, thanks in part to kids and adults who want to become speedway drivers.
“It’s a good way for them and anyone who wants to get off a console and come out and actually do some semi-proper racing and drifting around the mud,” he said.
“Our youngest club members are 9 and 13, and I think our eldest is about 70, so it’s really a motorsport for everybody.”
Members of Hawke's Bay Racing Lawnmower Club on their current track at Hawke's Bay Car Club in Bridge Pā.
The world’s first ride-on lawnmower race was held in the small town of Twelve Mile, Indiana in 1963 and participants raced on factory-built ride-on mowers with their mowing decks removed.
The first lawnmower race on this side of the globe was reportedly held near a pub in Harrietville, Victoria in 1988 after five pub patrons challenged each other to a race around the nearby hills on unmodified Briggs and Stratton lawnmowers after a drunken argument.
The motorsport has evolved heavily since those debut races, with modern races being more about the building of the mower than the actual racing, according to Marr.
“We pretty much strip the guts out of the [the lawnmowers] and it’s heavily modified,” he said.
“The blades get removed because we’re all about health and safety here and [the lawnmowers] get lowered and the engine gets a bit of tweaking and we customise it to our personal flair, and yeah, go skidding round corners having a blast.”
Marr said some of the better-tuned lawnmowers can reach speeds of up to 80km/h, while his own lawnmower can achieve 50km/h on the flats.
His machine is built so he can “hit the corners pretty hard”, he said.
If anyone would like to join the club or offer a bit of land up for the club to race on, Marr said they should head to the club’s Facebook page and get in touch.
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in Auckland, London, Berlin, and Napier.
