{"id":648684,"date":"2026-05-04T09:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T09:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/648684\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T09:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T09:06:16","slug":"lawn-mower-racing-fostering-community-of-revheads-across-regional-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/648684\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawn mower racing fostering community of revheads across regional Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yaamba Raceway is a long way from Bathurst’s Mount Panorama.<\/p>\n

About half an hour north of Rockhampton and “behind the servo” lies the site of one of the country’s most unique motoring events.<\/p>\n

The 2026 All Australian Mower Racing Championships ran for three days over the weekend featuring competitors ready to tear around a track on refurbished ride-ons.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Emily Butcher, centre, travelled with her family from Townsville to drive in the race.\u00a0 (ABC Capricornia: Jacob Gamble)<\/p>\n

Emily Butcher from Townsville is years away from having a learner’s permit, but that has not stopped the 11-year-old from hitting the dirt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think it’s really fun how it’s really loud and powerful, it’s really fast!” she said.<\/p>\n

Emily is one of more than 100 racers who came from across the country to race, refusing to let rising fuel prices slow them down.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

Organiser Tarm Booy said the community and camaraderie kept people coming back.<\/p>\n

“We’re 99 per cent social and one per cent racing,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Everybody has pitched in. It doesn’t matter what club, what state, what type of mower you’ve got.<\/p>\n

“If someone can help you out, that’s the mower family. We help out.”Birth of a sport<\/p>\n

Lawn mower racing is thought to have begun in Australia in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

The tale goes that a booze-fueled argument at a Victorian country pub led a group of friends racing their lawn mowers around the local hills.<\/p>\n

Nowadays blades are removed, engines upgraded, and the mower exterior is customised to fit the racer.<\/p>\n

Some vehicles reportedly hit speeds of up to 100 kilometres an hour.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

North Queensland Mower Racing Club had a strong showing at the national championships. (ABC Capricornia: Jacob Gamble)<\/p>\n

John Brose from Tasmania has been racing for nine years and said part of the sport’s appeal is how little it costs to become involved.<\/p>\n

“It’s much cheaper than doing the car racing and the bikes,” he said.<\/p>\n

“When you’ve got a wife and things, they go ‘let’s keep the prices down’.”<\/p>\n

His mower is named The High Chair because it sits a little further off the ground.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Racer John Brose travelled from Tasmania for the national championships. (ABC Capricornia: Jacob Gamble)<\/p>\n

Mr Brose said it was a sport you could race anywhere in the world and always find people to talk to.<\/p>\n

“Each and every one of them, in the places I’ve been to, have accepted me,” he said.Mower family\"A<\/p>\n

Andrew Dalley came to the competition in honour of a close friend. (ABC Capricornia: Jacob Gamble)<\/p>\n

For Andrew Dalley, the mower racing community gave him comfort as he mourned the death of a close friend.<\/p>\n

Mr Dalley travelled from New Zealand to the event to honour Ken, a fellow racer, who passed away recently.<\/p>\n

“I can talk to the guys over here, they know him, they know how I feel, it’s just a good family,” he said.<\/p>\n

Bill Vaughan is a member of the Fraser Coast club and drew loud cheers as raced in his bright yellow mower.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Bill Vaughan was another another competitor in the mowing race. (ABC Capricornia: Jacob Gamble)<\/p>\n

The 94-year-old calls himself a “1932 model” and caught the need for speed later in life.<\/p>\n

“My partner passed away, had a loss, so I joined up a couple of men’s sheds and got into the mower racing,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Best thing I ever did.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yaamba Raceway is a long way from Bathurst’s Mount Panorama. About half an hour north of Rockhampton and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,313885,313886,824,3173,23850,85],"class_list":["post-648684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-lawn-mower","tag-lawnmower-racing","tag-motorsport","tag-race","tag-regional-communities","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}