Legend has it, the first lawn mower race in Australia originated in Harrietville , Victoria in 1988, the idea, thought up by a group of guys in the local pub over a few beers. As the legend goes, they challenged each other to a race around the local hills on their lawn mowers to see who was the fastest. According to an eye witness "Half the town's 100 people, 300 sheep and 150 dogs were there"
It is believed that the race was a fundraiser for the local CFA and from there the idea and popularity of lawn mower racing grew.
With this in mind all of VicMow's events are for fundraising or local Community events, at no cost to the organisers from VicMow. We are all about keeping it affordable and fun. Our rules are also made with this in mind. We race solely to raise funds for the Community and to compete against our mates, (never underestimate the value of bragging rights!) With expensive machines comes big issues and that's not what we are about. If you're thinking yeah right these guys and girls are racing for more than bragging rights, you'd be mistaken, a large number of our racers are Family, we're talking Mum's, Dad's, brother's, husbands, wives and even in-laws and some of these racers are competing in the same classes, against each other, so you can imagine the car rides home!
We want to keep Mower Racing Safe and Good Cheap Family Fun.
Most other forms of motor sport have become unrestricted and racers spend a fortune on engine and chassis modifications and that puts it out of reach of many people. We are keeping mower racing as cheap as possible and stopping it from becoming cheque book racing, where the teams with the biggest budget always wins.
Ask yourself, how many other motorsports are there that the whole family can afford to participate in.The answer sadly is, not many!
You may notice that the Juniors don't all start from the same position: That's because it's all about getting them out there and developing their skills, rather than who's taking home a trophy. They start off staggered to allow everyone a fair chance, so one child isn't a lap ahead/behind, whilst not every child will take home a trophy, we still want them to enjoy themselves and build their confidence up, by staggering them, it also teaches them about good sportsmanship and we are very proud of our Juniors and the levels of sportsmanship they show each other.
Juniors intent: To provide a fun and safe opportunity for the kids to demonstratethe driver's ability when in competetion with essentially identical mowers.This is a highly regulated class to ensure uniformity and safety between Junior machines. The intent is have as mechanically identical mowers as possible so that Junior racers can gain experience and develop skills needed to advance to C Class when they become of age.
Race days typically start with scrutineering commencing from 8.30am, this is an essential part of the day to ensure mowers are safe and racers haven't forgotten anything, it is also, almost always dragged out by Members socialising and catching up with each other, as the racing side is pushed to the back, with socialising taking high priority!
After scrutineering is the drivers briefing, a chance to share any news with all the Members, welcome newcomers and get a run down of the days racing, the flags and rules for new racers.
Following the drivers brief, is a track walk to familiarise the racers with the track layout and spot any potential hazards that might have been missed.
Racing generally kicks off around 10.30am and is broken up in to heats of the 4 classes,consisting of both Men and Women. Generally we run 4 heats of each class, because heat numbers are based on how many racers there are competing on the day and the width of the track, there may be several groups going out from the same class. If a competitors mower breaks down and can be fixed, heat orders may be switched around, to give the racer time to get their mower repaired and back on the track. This can often involve raiding other members tool boxes and spare parts, including those they are competing against. After 3 heats of the classes have been run, racers break for lunch, during the lunch break, mowers will be put on display for spectators to have a look up close, take photos and ask questions.
After the lunch break the last heats are run and if there are racers tied for place points, shoot outs will occur, once these have finished there are feature races for the Juniors and Seniors, the top 3 or 4 competetiors from A, B and C Classes compete against each other in a reverse grid race, generally consisting of 5-8 laps to find out who is the overall winner of the day.
A Whole New Racing Experience!
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