Horsepower is king at the races, and at Thirsk Racecourse in Yorkshire it comes in small as well as large packages.
With 5ha of grass to cut on the racecourse and car parks, head groundsman Steve Kelsey has relied on his Kubota M6060 to pull tractor-mounted mowers for a number of years, but has recently added a smaller GR2120 ride-on mower to the fleet, supplied by local dealer Russells.
“The GR2120 is used to cut along the rail where we can’t get a big machine but still need an efficient mowing solution,” he explains. “We also use it for areas such as enclosures and lawns where we need a good finish.”
The powerful little mower has a tried and tested Kubota 21hp diesel engine for high outputs on larger lawns and four-wheel drive to give improved traction in the wet and on sloping land but also features Kubota’s Glide Steer system for manoeuvrability.
This revolutionary system cuts power automatically to the inside rear wheel when the turning angle reaches 70 degrees. By allowing the inner wheel to spin freely while the outer wheel powers the mower through its turn, damage to the grass is avoided while the mower continues cutting effortlessly and tightly around trees, posts and other obstacles.
When the turn is completed, drive is restored automatically to all four wheels. The extremely tight turning circle provided by Glide Steer on full lock produces an uncut circle of grass measuring just 110 cm, a highly impressive figure for a machine with four driven wheels.
With its 1.2m (48in) cut and direct chute collection system, the GR2120 is also productive, gathering cut grass into a 450 litre collector which is emptied simply and quickly via a gas assist lever.
“It’s a big improvement on the ride-ons that we have used previously, and one of our older machines is up for replacement, so we’ll be adding another to the fleet soon,” says Steve.
Thirsk Racecourse is clearly onto a winner with Kubota.
