Lawn mower racing all about 'having fun' - Mower Mania enjoys first visit to Bega Show

The recent Bega Show was Mower Mania's first visit to Bega and Ms Orford said they had a great time with the local crowds who gave them a warm welcome.

The club came from Western Sydney for the show weekend of February 19 and 20, to race on the Horizon Bank main arena.

Ms Orford said the idea for mower racing first struck when they saw a lawnmower race at another show more than 10 years ago and thought they'd try to revive some of their own ride-on mowers and give it a go.

"We live on acreage and had a few mowers lurking around in the garage so we thought let's just try and race these little motors," Ms Orford said.

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Over the years however certain challenges have come up for some of the club's riders, one of them being Ms Orford diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

"It held me back a little bit, but I still have a go and that's what we're about, it's about having fun out there, not who wins the race," she said.

"We have had our ups and downs, some of us get sick but we don't give up, we just keep going and have fun," Ms Orford said.

Ms Orford said members of the Mower Mania had a lot of fun designing their custom built mowers, each painted and decorated to suit the competitor.

There was a range of different styles, from loud and fast moving mowers, to youth riding their own custom made creations - and one racer who happily rode along slowly clapping all the spectators' hands as he drove past.

Ms Orford said they also had a range of age groups involved, with the group's youngest rider being 11 and their oldest rider 73 years old.

Funnily enough every competing vehicle had the word 'mow' incorporated into the name thereby creating numerous 'pun-worthy' entries.

Some of these names included Mowtallica, Mowtion Sickness, Double Mowseven, Mowcedes, Smowkey and the Bandit, to name a few.

"We've built them all and designed them to our own tastes and preferences," she said.

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Ms Orford said she was proud to race alongside three generations that day, which included her nephew Jakson Reilly and her father Greg Orford.

"My 14-year-old nephew races with us and built his own mower, so we're not just jumping on mowers and having a race, we actually work on them and add character to them," she said.

Ms Orford said she does her best to encourage other girls to get involved in lawn mower racing as well.

"My helmet's got ponytails on it to emphasise to girls that we can do this sort of thing too, you don't have to be a guy to get involved, girls can have as much fun as boys do," she said.