Main candidates are Shingleback Lizards and Bearded dragons, but in a rare interspecies race in 1980, champion racing Cockroach "Destructo" defeated champion racing lizard "Wooden Head", but was allegedly trodden on by an inebriated spectator in the moment of his triumph.
At last September’s races, a rare celestial event amazed participants. While patrons stood drinking outside the leading hotel on the evening before the races, a brilliant, if short lived meteor shower, was seen in the western sky.
What this shower represented was discovered on the following Monday, when prospectors searching the Yowal and Duck Creek opal fossicking fields found the ground strewn with a fresh fall of tektites.
These tektites were found to be unique, Examination by scientists from the University of Queensland showed that, ranging in size from peanuts to hens eggs, they were composed of vitrified sulphur of 99.999 per cent purity.
Samples sent to NASA were compared with data from space probes and conclusively established that these objects were ejected during an explosive volcanic eruption on Io which took place on 4 July, 1995.
Such is the significance of this find that NASA has commissioned a specially engraved brass commemorative plate which will be fixed to the western side of Destructo’s granite funery monument adjacent to the lizard racing track.
The unveiling of the plate will be conducted with due ceremony by the committee of the Eulo Astronomical Society (Inc) at the beginning of next September’s races, and amateurs with sporting instincts are cordially invited to attend.
Inspired by this discovery, NASA is reviewing data on eruptions on Io in an attempt to forecast time and likely location of further sulphur / tektite falls.
Amateurs finding such tektites are asked to report the find to their Astronomy club so that the find can be forwarded on to the appropriate research facility for evaluation.
The official version of the death of "Destructo" was being trodden on. However, Alternate has discovered that he was actually struck by a two (2) kilogram carbonaceous chondrite just after the race (a meteor from the Piscid meteor shower, and almost the only way to kill a cockroach).
This fact was kept a secret as the State Government was at that time considering regulating the conduct of the races, and did, in fact in 1995 enact the "Nature Conservation (Eulo Lizard Races) Conservation Act" to ensure that:
(a) The taking, use, and keeping of lizards for racing during the festival is ecologically sustainable; and
(b) The taking, handling, and release of the lizards is co-ordinated in accordance with acceptable standards of humane treatment.
For example, feeding the animals alcoholic beverages or prodding them with instruments is prohibited, as is the application of kerosene, methylated spirits, turpentine or like fluids to their nether regions.
Now that the truth about Destructo’s death is becoming known, the new Beattie Government in Queensland is said to be seriously considering either requiring overhead protection at the Paroo Track, or banning the races altogether from being held at a time of major meteor showers, as Eulo is situated close to a major radiant point for meteors.