Letter From the Chairman

It’s hard to believe it’s already been 3 weeks since our annual 12 Hour race completed. Hopefully everyone has now recovered in what turned out to be an extremely tough race with difficult track conditions after the rain earlier in the week left the track sponge like in places and then the thick fog that set in overnight. A huge congratulations to all those that finished and Team NKG (Mark Rostron, James Pawley & Daz Whitehead) on another win after a 7 year wait!

Unfortunately, this week we have to report the very sad news of the passing of Mark Rostron who had been a regular at The BLMRA endurance events with him winning the 12 Hour on 6 occasions making him one of the most decorated racers at the annual event. Mark’s speed and race craft were unmatched and he will be sorely missed by the entire lawn mower racing community. Our thoughts go out to his family at this time.

For me it was fantastic to see Les’s group 4 take the start of the race after what was a very last-minute decision to enter and even better to see it come across the line 12 Hours later, a great achievement from our friends from the USA. Likewise, the young guys on the Smokin Grass group 3 bringing home 3rd place after what must have been a baptism of fire as a first race!

I’m please to say we raised close to £5,000 for our chosen Prostate Cancer charity and would like to thank everyone who helped promote the event and bring in sponsorship.

The 12 Hour Committee held an initial debrief session this week to review all of the feedback that’s already come in and ideas as to how we can improve the race in the future. Whilst many topics were discussed there was positive feedback on the increased scrutineering focus both pre and post-race but this did have knock on effects as to our timetable which is something we’ll need to re-consider at future events. We would love to hear more feedback from yourselves, please take a few minutes to share your thoughts here.

As ever the event wouldn’t be possible without all the helpers that come together to put on this fantastic event, whether that’s the committee who worked tirelessly from the start of the year, those of you that completed your helpers slot or the many that stepped up during the race to support race control, the paddock and the track even in those difficult early hours of the morning.

I would like to extend a huge thank you to the 12 Hour Committee plus everyone else that stepped up during the event, we really can’t stress enough how important all this help is and without it the event couldn’t run. If you believe you could help in any way in the future please do get in touch.

So a big thanks to the 12 Hour Committee – Ian R, Pete H, Pete L, Laura, Charlie, Tiff, Dan, Mark R, Pugs, Vikki, Mick, Mark A, Stuart & Rich. And then all those that helped throughout the event, Mark T, Barrie, Leon, Colin, Hayden, Carl, Claire, Kaz, Nicola, Peter B, Scott, Chris, Amelia & Diane.

We hope to be returning to the same venue on the 5th October to hold a cross-country style event, taking advantage of many fields in a point-to-point style sprint race weekend and coupling it with our end of season awards ceremony in the Trooper Inn. We’re pleased to say we’ll be extending our endurance membership to include the cross-country event, please keep an eye for more details in the coming weeks.

Once again thank you to everyone who supported us and we hope everyone has a great end to their race season and that we’ll see you again in the future.

Dean – BLMRA Chairman