Barry Dawe | President of the NZ Lawn Mower Racing Association

Can you tell us about some of the rules that the national champs will have?

Okay, so the big thing to think about with the rules of lawnmower racing is that we're racing lawnmowers.

So you have to start with a lawnmower and you have to have the majority of the lawnmower as part of what you've built.

I guess there's two philosophies.

You can either go and get some steel and weld up a frame like you do for a go-kart and then slap some mower parts on it and call it a lawnmower, which America does and that's great, but it comes down to money.

spend lots and lots of money on all sorts of expensive stuff.

What we've tried to do at the ends of the MRA is we've tried to stick to our grassroots, which is trying to keep the lawnmower.

It has to have mowed lawns.

You've got to have a lawnmower engine.

It's got to have a belt in it.

So what it does is it limits the money you have to spend to have fun and be competitive and it makes it a much more affordable sport.

I think that's the important part of what we're trying to do.

And we just turn up in a paddock, and as long as somebody's got a paddock with a bit of grass on it, we'll go and race.

So you don't need to have expensive tracks with maintenance and all that sort of stuff.

Just turn up and have a go.

Can you tell us about some of the rules that the national champs will have?

Okay, so the big thing to think about with the rules of lawnmower racing is that we're racing lawnmowers.

So you have to start with a lawnmower and you have to have the majority of the lawnmower as part of what you've built.

I guess there's two philosophies.

You can either go and get some steel and weld up a frame like you do for a go-kart and then slap some mower parts on it and call it a lawnmower, which America does and that's great, but it comes down to money.

spend lots and lots of money on all sorts of expensive stuff.

What we've tried to do at the ends of the MRA is we've tried to stick to our grassroots, which is trying to keep the lawnmower.

It has to have mowed lawns.

You've got to have a lawnmower engine.

It's got to have a belt in it.

So what it does is it limits the money you have to spend to have fun and be competitive and it makes it a much more affordable sport.

I think that's the important part of what we're trying to do.

And we just turn up in a paddock, and as long as somebody's got a paddock with a bit of grass on it, we'll go and race.

So you don't need to have expensive tracks with maintenance and all that sort of stuff.

Just turn up and have a go.