Drivers donned their suits and climbed into their cockpits at the weekend for a 12-hour endurance race with a difference: they weren’t driving rallying cars, but lawnmowers.
The lawnmowers can reach speeds approaching 50 mph but a week of rain preceding the race left the surface of the dirt track soft and difficult to navigate.
“This track will find out any weak points on a mower,” previous winner Andy Rostron told Reuters. For the fifth year in a row the race was won by the Northerners Kick Grass team.
Lawnmower racing came out of a meeting of motor-sport fans in a pub in 1973 who wanted to create an inexpensive class of racing. Teams are forbidden from accepting sponsorship or modifying engines.
