At Riply in the heart of Derbyshire lay a tranquil site known as Lumb Farm, which was about to be transformed into a live episode of wacky races, well the characters from the wacky races certainly seemed dull compared Vicky and the other characters there.
The Ribcrackers had decided to have a Wacky Races Soapbox Derby, as entertainment for this event, they weren’t sure of what sort of response they would get to this, but went ahead and did it anyway, and they needn’t have worried as the turnout was fantastic, with homemade Go-Kart after Go-Kart arriving until there were 14 teams in total.
The Karts ranged from fully welded up metal models to nailed together wooden models with either and each one totally different to the next by far the biggest turnout was the Perverts in Leather that had many different karts ranging from mad to madder but all fantastic AliBongos, ribcrackers (Anthill Mob), Newhall Trikers, Bikerlifestyle, all had entries and the ages or riders varied from under 13 up to Jim of Newhall Trikers who at over 70 built and rode his own cart (he came 4th out of 14 teams – in your face you young scallywags).
The Run consisted of the driveway from the farm downward with a small speedbump and each group were allowed 2 pushers to start them off. And times varied from 2 minutes for the slowest down to 18.6 seconds for the fastest. There were a few ‘Incidents’ ranging from spinning offs to complete ‘Offs’ the most notable being the Perverts in Leather ‘pink trailer Kart / spectator interface’ the AliBongos ‘Bouncing Kart’ incident performed by Mick and Finally the Bikerlifestyle ‘JonnyFP / Tarmac / Flying Kart Performance’ and like a trooper he got back on and finished in style. I could go on for ages about the Karts and there time trials but I won’t, you will just have to turn up next year and see for yourselves (a 2 day event is planned for next year and should be in March).
After the racing was finished it was into the pub until the evenings entertainment started, this allowed time for people to sort themselves out, treat their wounds and pack away their Karts, with food being served in the pub and good company it was a nice rest to an exciting day, The entertainment started about 7ish and was fancy dress with a Gangsters & Molls theme. There was a DJ in the function room whilst the pub section was quieter for those wanting to chat, Fugitive came on at 9.30 the played a mixture of cover songs and their own material, both very good and they have also just released a new album.
There was a break at 1030 to do the raffle, Prizes for best fancy dress and Kart trophies, best fancy dress was awarded to Rosie (The Bitches) for best dressed female (dressed as a gangster) and to Andy (suicide Frogs) for best dressed moll. In a rather fetching white outfit which obviously came straight from the catwalks of Paris.
There were four prizes in the Kart Race.
Fastest Kart: Bulldog Dave - Perverts with 'It'll all end in tears'
Runner up: Lee - Perverts with 'Maybe'
Best Soapbox: Ali Bongos MCC with 'BikerLifestyle.co.uk Soapbox'
Outstanding Effort: Tommo - Perverts with 'A wing and a prayer'

After this Fugitive came back on and played out till the end.
As mentioned earlier this event will be a full weekend rally in 2007, and judging by the quality of entrants this year, next year will be better still so start designing and building the carts now because it will be well worth it, this ‘Soap Box Derby’ was a refreshing and exhilarating addition to a biker event, and has been added to my must do list for next year.
Maybe the motto for next year should be ‘Win Or Die Trying’

Yoda