A Great Mowment

Posting this just after the 2016  British Lawn Mower Racing 12 hour endurance race.


This elite sporting event is a cut above the standard F1 and such boring events. Started in 1973 in a village just down the road where I lived from 1977 and probably my first and I think only visit happened around then. It was relatively small but attracted several famous drivers including the likes of actor Oliver Reed and racing drivers Sir Stirling Moss and Derek Bell. I seem to remember there being about 50 spectators to see the start at 8 pm and then after a few beers, we all went home to leave them to it.

Having grown up within almost walking distance of the racing associations headquarters, The Cricketers Arms pub, my son eventually agreed to display his driving talents for the public. I won't mention that he turned 17 in February that year and therefore had legally only 6 months driving experience and I won't ask what he was doing as a regular in a pub, but I can confirm he had more than 15 years of lawn mower tractor driving experience and will post evidence soon.

Here is J's (on the left of photo) description of the event:



At 4 am when the mower died we decided that we couldn't (wouldn't!!) fix it as our internal organs were hurting in ways and places that we didn't know were possible. So we clambered four up into the back of a transit van with no covers or cushions and slept for 3 hours despite the racket of 40 other mowers continuing their battle for first place. Then an hour before the finish at 8:00 am, when everyone comes out of coma (boredom) and cares who is winning we pretended to fix and beat the mower into working order thus maintaining our credibility. I have never returned to the seat, it is horrible and i mean horrible!