Saturday 21st June saw the Welton village fete take place; Welton is a village a couple of miles away from Daventry and it happens to be where my children go to school. The fete takes place annually but for the first time in a number of years, the event centred on a soap box derby.
Welton is built around a twisting and quite steep main street that is perfect for soap box racers to get up to a decent gravitational velocity (especially after a good shove off from their pit crew mates). Drivers need to have their wits about them and a gung-ho kind of attitude (either construed as bravery or stupidity) - accidents and injuries are not unknown and hospital trips have been necessary.
In glorious sunshine more than a dozen contraptions of varying style, colour, complexity, comedic value and engineering nous gathered along with their pilots/lunatics. Some of the vehicles were professionally engineered and built and the difference in speed between those and the more traditional string, planks and pram wheel designs were significant.
Some racers were adults and taking it all rather seriously, which was a little bit of a shame bearing in mind that others were kids and brave enough to have a go. I don't know if there were categories of entrant or separate prizes for adults and juniors but if there weren't, there should have been.
All the vehicles were scrutinised by a Halfords crew before being deemed race worthy, inadequate brakes meant no running. One soap box racer though was so badly made as to be dangerous and God knows why it was allowed to compete – the decidedly wonky Simon Dodd creation only made a handful of metres before careering off into the crowd, throwing out the driver and knocking over an elderly spectator. In competing the drivers accept the risk of injury; the same can’t be said of the spectators.
The speed of descent was measured by official time keepers and the results compiled into a league table. For a few hours the racers could run again and again to try and improve their times.
Soap box designs included a twin seat Shark, a red Furrari, a men behaving badly sofa scene (my absolute favourite), Postman Pat’s delivery van and a Tango speedster (photos shared for your enjoyment).
For an afternoon the village, normally quiet, had come to life and was full of people; the local pub was doing a roaring trade, the village hall was open and various stalls were set up selling food, drink, experiences, books and bric-a-brac.
All in all an entertaining few hours spent, well done to the organisers and all those that gave their support to make it happen. Hopefully it will become a regular feature once more.
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P.S. I have all these images in higher resolution. If you want one emailed to you, just get in touch.
Welton is built around a twisting and quite steep main street that is perfect for soap box racers to get up to a decent gravitational velocity (especially after a good shove off from their pit crew mates). Drivers need to have their wits about them and a gung-ho kind of attitude (either construed as bravery or stupidity) - accidents and injuries are not unknown and hospital trips have been necessary.
In glorious sunshine more than a dozen contraptions of varying style, colour, complexity, comedic value and engineering nous gathered along with their pilots/lunatics. Some of the vehicles were professionally engineered and built and the difference in speed between those and the more traditional string, planks and pram wheel designs were significant.
Some racers were adults and taking it all rather seriously, which was a little bit of a shame bearing in mind that others were kids and brave enough to have a go. I don't know if there were categories of entrant or separate prizes for adults and juniors but if there weren't, there should have been.
All the vehicles were scrutinised by a Halfords crew before being deemed race worthy, inadequate brakes meant no running. One soap box racer though was so badly made as to be dangerous and God knows why it was allowed to compete – the decidedly wonky Simon Dodd creation only made a handful of metres before careering off into the crowd, throwing out the driver and knocking over an elderly spectator. In competing the drivers accept the risk of injury; the same can’t be said of the spectators.
The speed of descent was measured by official time keepers and the results compiled into a league table. For a few hours the racers could run again and again to try and improve their times.
Soap box designs included a twin seat Shark, a red Furrari, a men behaving badly sofa scene (my absolute favourite), Postman Pat’s delivery van and a Tango speedster (photos shared for your enjoyment).
For an afternoon the village, normally quiet, had come to life and was full of people; the local pub was doing a roaring trade, the village hall was open and various stalls were set up selling food, drink, experiences, books and bric-a-brac.
All in all an entertaining few hours spent, well done to the organisers and all those that gave their support to make it happen. Hopefully it will become a regular feature once more.
Blog Home
Blog Library
Home
P.S. I have all these images in higher resolution. If you want one emailed to you, just get in touch.
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