There are a few different mower racing clubs in the UK, but below are the two biggest and well organised, check out their websites for more information.

Building your first racing mower can seem challenging, but I promise the reward is well worth it.

R & M Racing's first real introduction to lawn mower racing was attending the 2013 12 hour race as spectators. Straight away we new we wanted to be involved and for us there was only one option - To Build.

We had already planned to build group 3 Lawnbug's, so the first step we took was to read and research as much as we could. This meant reading facebook threads, looking at photos and most importantly the BLMRA handbook.

We contacted the BLMRA technical team and arranged a visit for homologation. After ensuring everything was ok, we then started on what was our blank canvas. Before rushing into anything we striped the existing paint, which was then followed by a coating of weld through primer. I highly recommending this, as it provides a nice surface to weld to and protects the steel throughout the duration of the build. As I promise the build will most likely take you longer than you think.

This isn't a bad thing, you just need to be realistic. With busy lives and families, the most important aspect of building your mower is to be patient and focus on the end goal. Which is ultimately to get out on the track and race.

If you can, I recommend working as a team, as this really helped us. Whether that be on individual mowers or one mower between you, it just provides even more motivation to get to the 'start' line Especially, through the cold winter months when you don't feel like tackling the steering geometry, or removing something you welded to the mower that now needs removing, as it's in the wrong place. Having a mate to bounce ideas off of and the ability to motivate each other is really beneficial.

Don't become someone who watches one race, goes on ebay and buys the first mower they see, posts a picture on the facebook page asking 'What do I need to do to get this thing racing......

Put some research in and talk to racers and the BLMRA, we want to see more people get involved in this brilliant sport and understand that, unlike most sports where you can go and buy equipment off the shelf, it takes time and effort to be a proud owner of a racing lawn mower.

To be that proud owner you need to put the effort in. For R & M Racing it began back in the summer of 2013. We started with stripping and prepping the mowers. Then in all honestly, we continued to research what we wanted to achieve, but didn't start the real works till 2014. We intended to work on the mowers throughout 2014 season, with the hope we might be able to enter at least one race. It wasn't until we started the works we realised that it was going to take us longer than we thought. Both mowers were going to be exactly the same, using the same components and material specifications. Even with this approach we realised that to be ready for the start of the 2015 season was going to be tight. For something that some people might think is only a lawn mower and small in size, there is a lot to think about, with some time consuming aspects. We were only able to commit one, sometimes two evenings a week and realised that we needed to rethink our very loose strategy to get out racing.

We therefore, decided to create a realistic deadline, that was achievable. This brought us back into focus. To do this meant we had to commit all our efforts to one mower, as our target was to enter the 2015 12 hour race in August.

It's worth noting at this point, that apart from a morning's taster session experienced by Max, back in May 2013, neither of the R & M Racing team had every really ridden a racing mower. We just knew that we wanted to be involved and didn't even think about whether we would enjoy or even like it. As racing's racing, right.....? Wrong! Racing a lawn mower over what looks like a smooth field with no suspension at 45mph can be a rude awakening. Believe me it's a buzz, but ensure that you leave enough time in your build programme to allow for testing and shakedown. For both you and the mower. Those fields are not as smooth as you may think.