WELTON SOAPBOX DERBY

A village event that puts on a show for both spectators and competitors.

Competitor parking is now on the village playing field which makes it much friendlier compared to the past where trailers and vans were left 150m away at the public parking field. Arriving by 9.00am means you can unload and trundle down to the scrutineering which starts at 10.00am. Karts are weighed to ensure they do not exceed the limit of 80Kg. This is one of those events that centres around the local pub, the White Horse. Food, drinks and toilets are all in the pub car park. In fact there's no shortage of food vendors who can be found all down the first part of the course. Plenty of live music, again in the White Horse car park. Race control is located at the start line and as well as instant kart timings there are feeds from CCTV cameras positioned down the track. ITV or BBC have covered the event in the past so there's a chance of instant fame, albeit fleetingly.

Once the racing starts it continues almost unabated all afternoon, the only interruptions coming following the inevitable crashes down the course. Those accidents are perhaps understandable as Welton has probably the highest number of 'inventive' soapboxes of all UK events. Recent entrants have constructed a working combine harvester, a lighthouse and replica of the White Horse. For some racers the main prize is not the fastest time but the highest speed recorded which sometimes results in a failure to finish a run.

It pays to get scrutineered early as there's a first come, first served running order. The first kart starts with sound of a klaxon at midday. The push start is perhaps notorious as it's the length of the adjacent White Horse pub (about 10m), so select your pushers with that in mind. A fast start is essential as the first 100m is virtually flat. A good shove may not give you a winning time, but a half-hearted one will put you way down the leaderboard. The road bends slightly left by the church and the gradient increases. After 50m there is a slight 30 degree right curve and the incline increases to around 10%. It's about 130m to the infamous Kettles corner. 15m before the corner a speed trap will show your speed. Anything over 33mph is healthy. Kettles is deceptive as its difficult to judge where the apex is owing to the barriers on the inside of the corner and the road surface is always slippy. In the wet, it's like driving on ice. The track then curves to the right and flattens out over the 150m to the finish line. Uplift is continuous with fleet of vans and trailers. Karts are dropped off at the junction of Station Road and High Street and then you can roll down to join the queue for your next run. Track time finishes about 4.45 and prize giving around 5.00pm.