Inside the Indy 500 of Lawnmower Races

ah summer the flowers of blooming the bees are buzzing but the lawns looking a little thick so let's give it a trim we could use this the Challenger cylinder lawn mower hand push power with a respectable 30 centimeter blade with oh this the boss wrote at 3:20 an electric mower within impressive 32 centimeter with or maybe this a racing Lamar with a 389 cc single-cylinder for Honda engine and well yeah it's quick that's 13 horsepower quick I mean it doesn't even cut the grass and you can race them here welcome to the greatest show on turf [Music] you're more racing isn't for the faint of heart meet the team that's going for gold this is Dan Jones he's the fast one I'd like to think I'm a good racer I'm a fair race are clean racer then des Colin click he's the viable one I'm probably known not for my outright speed when it gets really bumpy and really gnarly that's that's when I come into my own and the final driver is Dean fuller he's the distant one I like to think I was somewhere between the two of them so work consistently quick I like thinking and of course don't forget Jason the mechanic there's no rivals at all for mayors of petrol but on the track they're all rivals together they make the who's racing team it's the lawn mowers that we race don't cut grass originally they would have had to have cut grass but we modify them to race them we take the cutting blades off help for safety reasons obviously these Mazda mowers are quick 50 miles an hour plus quick laughs they often say motorsport is dangerous there's nothing here to keep you strapped in so if you come off and you're going fast it is gonna hurt over the years the I've seen broken arms collarbones shoulder blades ribs legs and cool you might be wondering why would anyone brace on a lawnmower well let's do a real quick history lesson lawnmower racing started back in 1973 but an Irishman called Jim Gavin and a few of his mates like any good idea it started in a pub here at the cricketers arms in Lewisburg Green England Jim was involved in rallying at the time and was getting sick and tired of sponsors sinking their teeth into this sport he wanted to create a form of motorsport that was cheap and accessible to everyone a few beers later the lads realized hey we've all got llamas no one would ever want to sponsor something like that why don't we race those and so they did and at the first event people actually showed up to race forty-six years later the British lawnmower racing Association is stronger than ever the lads will be entering into one of the hardest most grueling endurance races on the planet the 12 hour lawnmower race so 12 hour race is really the the pinnacle event of the year expect to have around 50 teams turn up as free drivers per team they race from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. that's 12 brew two hours of racing going 50 miles an hour through the dirt mud in the dark all along our lawnmower there's lots of difficulties the main obvious one is being at night the track getting bumpy the tracks constantly changing throughout the night as well to win this 12-hour race for me is the ultimate it's just the pinnacle of racing you know if I was to win this race I'd probably cross the line in tears I've always thought to myself maybe I'd retire after that to finish on a high this is the one I want to win [Music] just like NASCAR Formula One there's a qualifying session [Music] [Music] we just had qualifying working out there leaderboards quite a good session actually we've done really well coming to the last corner before the pitch straight and got flagged down to you told them I was on fire [Music] so as we can see it seems the trousers burnt all the seat base or the electrical wiring looms will be burnt out back in the pits get it prepared we've got a few hours now for the race so till we get it back out in the middle of everything is this the green beast I don't know we're gonna be racing rivets at the front end steering modified it's still got an original lawnmower engine the only thing you can take out of it is the governor which controls how high the engine revs that's all you can do to the engine we strip everything away so we just left with the chassis and then you build the front axle to something that's stronger that can take the punishments and then the gearbox has been replaced so it doesn't blow up midway through the race we have to use normal tires I think the whole idea is that it doesn't matter if you've got millions of pounds it's not going to make any difference yeah it's all about how you build them are and how you're racing $48.00 gets through qualifying now it's time to line up on the grid each ready to mow down the opposition sorry I just can't resist the pun for me personally the start of the race I just get butterflies nervous you stood on that start line your hearts in your mouth you're just your knees are shaking always got rely on their the machine's gonna start when you press the button as well and you know nine times out of ten it won [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you've got your racing head on you focused on your corners on who your overtaking and the adrenaline kicks in with about 45 minutes think roughly then we'll come in change drivers change fuel second driver on and away we go [Music] Kitely that's my first in so it's not too bad at the moment it's a bit slippery in places still but it's not that bump here you're starting see the quickest lap was a rice come in the tracks are getting pretty well bedded in after electrical issue the mile was forced into the pits the who's racing team slips back into 27th place comes flying down the pitch straight all seemed okay out at the first corner all of a sudden we lose all the lights on the front can't see a thing so I've had to do a whole lap in the dark come back in when I've been trying to rush put new lights on to get back out there it's all kicking off our track you know there's another mode of catching fire payoff said a minute but we've got lights back on and we're back at error try to push on when the sunlight starts to come back up and you can see the state of the track that's when it hurts and that's when you start to feel really tired the final few hours of the race saw them chasing down the team ahead of them the grass bandits but at 8 a.m. the race comes to a dramatic close the lads finish in 14th I'm done I gave everything I went on asleep now a beer and a sweep the best Western team bring home the trophy after coming back from 43rd place just shows that anything is possible in normal racing I can't express what it means I cannot put into words it's just mean so much so that the best bit is 8 o'clock in the morning everything stops everybody shakes hands has a hug and then everybody switches the engine off the generators off and it just goes deadly quiet that's the best period so who's racing team same time next year [Music]

Channel: Great Big Story

Views: 988,539

Rating: 4.9331188 out of 5

Keywords: great big story, gbs, lag, documentary, docs, lawnmower, racing, slow, British Lawn Mower Racing Association, Five Oaks, England, Greatest Show, British, compete, helmet, New Releases, Sports & Action, sports, action, Weird & Fun Knowledge, weird, fun knowledge

Id: brgep8R73u8

Length: 9min 44sec (584 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 05 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/cboals]

Leave it to the brits to make this a thing.

[u/VijaySwing]

this is what Ford v Ferrari should have been about

[u/d-nj]

I can’t believe what guys come up with to get away from their waives at home 😂