‘Le Mans with mowers’ – Inside the 12-hour race.

Every year in West Sussex, dozens of drivers queue for the start of a prestigious motor race, but the vehicles appear to be more at home in a back garden, with no tarmac in sight.

This is Le Mow, an annual 12-hour lawn mower race in Wisborough Green that is regarded as the most affordable way to participate in competitive motorsport. It runs all night, from 19:00 BST to 07:00 BST, and whoever completes the most laps around the track wins.

“I’ve raced cars on circuits, and nothing feels as fast as this, they can get up to 55mph,” Callum McIntyre, who is competing in this year’s race, told the BBC.

Every 45 minutes, competitors stop in the pit lane to refuel and repair damage to the mower or the drivers. “I’ve only had broken ribs,” Callum’s teammate, Glyn Saunders, 54, explained.

Teams are typically made up of three drivers who share the workload over the course of 12 hours. Just finishing the race is a huge accomplishment.

Daz Whitehead of the Northerners Kick Grass team is the most successful driver in the race’s history. Last year’s victory gave him his seventh overall win, 26 years after his first, but this year his goals have shifted.

“Mark Rostron, who was part of our winning team last year, sadly passed away a couple days after last year’s race,” Mr. Whitehead announced. “The idea is just to race in his memory and what will be will be in terms of result.”

‘No better feeling’

Lawn mower racing was created in 1973 at a pub in Wisborough Green by a group of friends who were dissatisfied with motorsport and commercialisation.

One suggested racing lawn mowers to reclaim the sport’s values. Even 52 years later, this is still true.

“It’s one of the cheapest forms of motorsport, which is probably why most people are getting into it,” Nick Webb, who is competing for the first time this year, explained. “The cart will probably cost you about £1,000, and the entrance fee’s £65.”

Indianna Winchester, 28, used to compete in motocross, but when her brothers formed a lawn mower team, she couldn’t resist joining in. “It’s a different kind of sport,” she explained.

“The endurance is obviously so much longer and there’s no suspension, so the back takes a bit of a beating.” Despite previous female-only lawn mower races sparking interest in the sport, Indiana is the only woman competing in this year’s event. “It would be nice to see some more women coming through,” she told me.

“I believe that if you have the desire to do something, you should pursue it. “There is nothing better than beating the boys.”

Alfie Walliss, 23, has lived in Wisborough Green his entire life but only recently established the race as an annual tradition.

“We always saw signs but assumed it was just a cutting grass competition,” he told me.

“My family and I visited two years ago and had a wonderful time. “We have never looked back.”

Whether a team finishes first, 40th, or not at all, the camaraderie of attempting such a difficult task unites them all. “I can confidently say I have 200 friends out there.

And they’re all friends,” the event’s president, Peter Hammerton, explained.

“It’s my life’s hobby and I’ve never even raced a mower.” Bullseye Racing won this year’s race after a long 12 hours.

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