By Helen Harkness

A small band of Spadeadam MC members made their way to a hill in an undisclosed location (behind my house) to do battle in the 2018 Soap Box derby. We had 4 soapboxes and 6 competitors ready to face “The Hill”. Graham Petry and Lewis Hodgson as Juniors. Philip Hodgson, Barry Lindsay, Nigel Harkness and myself as seniors.

First run, Barry decided to set the standard at 59 seconds, next was Graham on 1.02. as he had no brothers to battle he’d decided that beating his Uncle Barry was the day’s goal! Nigel was next on 1.03 and as my goal was to beat Nigel, my run of 1.06 wasn’t looking good! Lewis and Phil brought a new soapbox with them, it looked a beast of a box, with far more weight than the rest of us. However, on Lewis’ first run that weight was a bit too much and the soapbox wasn’t particularly steerable. He took a spill and unfortunately had to cut his day short with a trip to A&E. His dad then decided to have a go and did make the first corner (just) and got a 1.06.

Next run, Barry was once again in the lead with 58 seconds, I was next with 1 minute flat, Graham just behind on 1.01. Nigel was behind him on 1.03 and then Phil on 1.06 again. That was to be the last run for the “Green Goddess” as on its next trip down the hill, the steering broke, luckily that time it was the only thing!

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By Graham Petry

I’d firstly like to thank the motor club for organizing such a fantastic event and the competitors who took part making the day all the more fun and challenging.
So I was first to go down the course which possibly wasn’t the best idea after last year.. But anyway I got to the finish with a clean run and a decent score of 1m 05sec.
Next to go was Uncle Barry. He ambitiously took the corner with a lot of speed and found himself upside down in the hedge, a quick recovery but set him back a bit of time to record a time of 1m 16.

Helen, Nigel, John Ross, Martyn & Shaun followed shortly afterwards. The leader board after the first run was positive position for me as Martyn sat in first, Helen second, Shaun joint third with myself. John was 5^th, Nigel 6^th and Uncle Barry 7^th.

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By Graham Petry

I would firstly like to thank all the marshals and competitors for a brilliant day out packed with fun, speed and excitement. For Martyn, Shaun and myself this was a thrilling experience with some very memorable moments.

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