12 Hour Lawn Mower Race - 1st-2nd August

[Andy]

A couple of the guys from the Hellfire Hot Rods are entering a team into this years 12 Hour Lawn Mower race in West Sussex for next weekend. I'm helping out on Pit Duties.

Me and Steve have both been building mowers, mine if current in that, 'fabrication' stage, while he's made more progress. This year the team has entered the Group 4 winner from last years race, and as Steve puts it, there is no pressure to win...

So if you're interested in what is actually a really good evening out at a typically British sport (real grass roots if you like a good pun) its definitely worth checking out.

This years track is in a field a mile north of Northchapel, West Sussex. The warm up to the start of the race starts at 7:30pm with the Le Mans style start at 8pm. £5 entry with all profits going to charity. It may sound completely mad, thats because it is! All the same its pretty mesmerising and a good evening out.

[philoldsmobile]

good luck. not around next weekend, otherwise i'd been there!

[art b]

sounds interestin...get us some pics....

[Andy]

Will try, its pretty hectic once everything gets going. Definately worth it if you can make it!

[Roadkill]

Sounds frikkin' awesome.

[F Body]

Quite fancy the idea but the 12 hour race starts at 8pm, no way I'd be staying throught the night
Would have thought it would have made more sense to have started at 12pm and run through to midnight

[Roadkill]

Quoting: F Body

Would have thought it would have made more sense to have started at 12pm and run through to midnight

I was thinking similar . . . . Even if it started early afternoon that wouldn't be AS bad . . .

[Andy]

Good question, but I have a feeling its one of those things that is built on tradition.

Its pretty awesome though, racing through the night... very Blues Brothers like, minus the mission from God.

[Andy]

All packed and ready for the off, tool box, torches, wet weather gear!

I will aparently be doing the refueling and mantaining our telemetry thingy-ma-jig, though to be honest not 100%.

Will also be doing updates on teh interweb via my Facebook!

Andy 'Yoshi' Dibley for those who want to know.

Peace out guys, see you all Sunday!

[ianjpage]

lol have fun matey

[Andy]

Well, I survived, and it was fecking muddy!

Didn't realise my importance, but turned out I was ment to be crew chief! I seriously recommend anybody that is interested in going, goes! You'll never see a bunch of more insane fanatics.

Funnily enough, we ended up pitting next to a guy who own a Pro Mod!!

In the end, we lasted 12 hours but the race finished after 4 due to the track just turning into something that resembling those scenes from WW1 with banks for mud a foot high from diggers scrapping the mud off to get to more solid stuff.

We had real bad problems with the clutch, and after untimed practise we change the pulley with and went from a .060 shim up to a .100 to see if it would stop the belt drive dragging on clutch in, unfortunately it didn't and with a Le Mans style start we just had to go with it. Luckily it started and was off!! It made a lap and conked out just before doing a lap on the opposite side to our pit stall.

With the clutch fully engaged we had to start it on block, rev the hell out of it and kick it off. It made it past the start finish line around a hair pin and back past the pit. Just out of what would be turn one, an adverse camber down hill (imagine turn one at Brand Hatch) the clutch cable snapped. So long push back to the pits and we set to work. With it being the only cable on the mower that we didn't have a spare of we had to work on something. In the end after much team effort we fixed the Ford Escort (mk1 apparently) hand brake cable with three jubilee clips.

This still didn't fix the dragging clutch which then took several send and retrieve pit stops to get right, after three hours a broken Vee belt from a bit to slack clutch setting, we finally had it ready to run!

WE MADE A LAP! Recording a lap time of 3hrs 43mins, with an average terminal speed of .36 mph! We had a little victory dance as it crossed the line and decided that we should take it back to the pits and let them sort the track out as it was impossible to make it around without pushing it.

About 10 mins later, with a digger on the home straight scrapping a half foot deep trench, a mower made the unfortunate move of getting stuck by its bucket, the driver got of a proceeded to get hit up the arse by a guy from behind, this ended up in a punch up to which the race official red flagged and subsequently ended the race!

All in all, was a great weekend! Would recommend it to anyone as a great motor sport to get into.

[Fieldy]

Quoting: Andy

About 10 mins later, with a digger on the home straight scrapping a half foot deep trench, a mower made the unfortunate move of getting stuck by its bucket, the driver got of a proceeded to get hit up the arse by a guy from behind, this ended up in a punch up to which the race official red flagged and subsequently ended the race!

BAHA HA HA HA HA H AH AH AH HA HAH


WTF?!!!

[art b]

sounds a larf .......

we need pics....

[Andy]

It really is mental, there was a team there with gravity feeders for fueling, an apparently its all about psycology and psycing out the opposition, that means you had to be out for first practice. We also wrote RR, LR, RF, and LF on out 4 spare tyres, even though they were the same pressures.

The ending of the race was really just everyone saying this is silly, as it was. Four diggers/telelifts were on the course at point tring to put down a racing line in the mud, which worked but was banking up mud somewhere else. A guy came for a pit stall in front of us, and just stopped as he hit this pile of mud.

It is fantastic though, to actually go there and achieve a lap, and still feel like you've ran the distance. Sad as it souds, but without a spare and just 4 grease monkey heads, we managed to bodge that mower together and make it better than it was... albeit, a bit to late.

[Roadkill]

Quoting: Andy

We also wrote RR, LR, RF, and LF on out 4 spare tyres, even though they were the same pressures.  

[Andy]

Just to give you guys some idea of what it was like...