THE Inverell Mower Racing Club is celebrating a cash injection that will put them on the starting grid to become the first licensed club in NSW – and host competition racing in lawn mowers on a dedicated flat track from early in 2017.
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Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall has delivered a great Christmas present to the club, according to secretary/treasurer Steve ‘Jacko’ Jackson, that not only gets it into gear to take off racing but also probably saves them from extinction, too.
The Inverell Mower Sports Club will use a $15,000 grant from a NSW program to convert an old go-kart track on the Ashford Rd at Inverell into the first 330 metre lawn mower track to be licensed in the country.
“We’re just so damned grateful for this funding because you know Inverell is a real sports town; there’s every sport here and while there’s great support, there’s only so much in the cookie jar when it comes to raising money from locals,” Mr Jackson said.
“Our members have been buying their own raffle tickets and eating the sausage sizzles too like a lot of us do and I don’t know if we would have survived another year without this funding through Adam’s hard work.”
Mr Marshall said the club will put in safety fencing first up and then start to prepare the track with some sandy dolomite soil and upgrade the pit area and some amenities.
We’re just so damned grateful for this funding because you know Inverell is a real sports town.
- Steve 'Jacko' Jackson
“They’re all revved up and waiting to race so this is great news and they’re ready to get started so they can host inter-regional and interstate competition and events and have their first big race day at Easter,” Mr Marshall said.
Once the track is bedded down and safety fencing in place, local policeman Senior Constable Heath Roberts should be able to tick it all off for a sports and recreational licence. Mr Marshall said Senior Constable Roberts had been a strong supporter and adviser to the club and the licence would come through affiliation to the National Dirt Racing Association and meet sporting and safety standards.
Mr Jackson said the club was a real family-oriented group, and there’d been numerous working bees and volunteer hours to turn the grounds into a real mower racing track, but the club really had pinned its hopes on the first grant funding to give it a start.