94-year-old finds joy racing lawn mowers at 100 km/h

Bill Vaughan calls himself a "1932 model," and at 94 years old, he just discovered his need for speed.

After his partner passed away, the Queensland man joined a men's shed and stumbled into the quirky world of lawn mower racing. "Best thing I ever did," he said as he climbed onto his bright yellow ride-on at the 2026 All Australian Mower Racing Championships.

He wasn't alone in finding something special behind the servo in Yaamba, about 30 minutes north of Rockhampton. Over 100 racers traveled from across the country, and even New Zealand, to race souped-up lawn mowers around a dirt track for three days.

Eleven-year-old Emily Butcher is years away from getting her learner's permit, but that hasn't stopped her from getting behind the wheel. "I think it's really fun how it's really loud and powerful, it's really fast!" she said after traveling from Townsville with her family.

The sport reportedly began in the 1980s after a booze-fueled argument at a Victorian pub led friends to race their mowers around local hills. Today, racers remove the blades, upgrade the engines, and customize their rides. Some vehicles hit speeds up to 100 kilometers per hour.

John Brose traveled from Tasmania with his mower, nicknamed The High Chair because it sits higher off the ground. After nine years in the sport, he loves how affordable it is compared to traditional motorsports. "When you've got a wife and things, they go 'let's keep the prices down'," he said.

But the real draw isn't the speed or the savings. Organizer Tarm Booy explained that the community keeps people coming back. "We're 99 percent social and one percent racing," she said. "If someone can help you out, that's the mower family."

Sunny's Take

For Andrew Dalley, who traveled from New Zealand, the mower racing community became a lifeline after losing his close friend Ken, a fellow racer. "I can talk to the guys over here, they know him, they know how I feel, it's just a good family," he said.

That's the magic happening at tracks across Australia. What started as a pub argument has grown into a nationwide family where a 94-year-old grieving widower and an 11-year-old girl can both find joy, purpose, and belonging on modified lawn mowers racing around dirt tracks.

From Tasmania to New Zealand to Queensland, these racers prove that community can bloom anywhere, even at 100 kilometers per hour on a souped-up ride-on mower.