Rat Sass Wins Big!

Yesterday was the 20th Annual Box Cart Derby here in Hope Town. Dave decided he wanted to give someone else a chance to be competitive and run his three wheeled Rat Sass entry. Originally we had intended on giving that opportunity to Mercedes, who is a sassy Cuban lady who works in our small grocery store (and who's husband died last spring). We kept this all a secret to everyone including her son who was also racing. During practice she discovered she couldn't steer well and ended up going in a ditch, scraping her knuckles and understandably backing out of the competition. Meanwhile her son Maity, discovered he had grown too much to fit in his box cart in the junior division, so Dave offered Rat Sass to him. He took to it perfectly and mom and son were really happy. In fact Mercedes took the safe route and rode in one of the carts that was being towed back up the hill (she has never even driven a car before, just her bicycle around town).

Maity did okay during the downhill competition, but on the slalom course he exceled and came in first place! In fact he ended being within 2 seconds of beating the senior winner...and, as you can see, he really liked the rat and named her Rita. His father Maitland, sure would be proud of him.

During the senior division Dave handed over the handlebars to our friend Judy's son...another Dave! Dave accidently started pedaling in the beginning of his first run but the judges were kind enough to let him try again. He didn't do real well during the downhill or the slalom but he sure had a blast.

Meanwhile, Dave was head mechanic and technical advisor, plus he was put into action to help start the races by lining up the carts and removing the wheel chalks at the sound of the horn. That's really what he was hoping he would end up doing.

What a fun day with lots of hard working volunteers. It's really nice that all the proceeds are going to youth programs. Here are a few of the other carts...

Shark-mobile was winner of the showmanship award and 3rd place for showmanship went to Hawaian Guy next to her.

Yellow Submarine won 2nd place in showmanship. They played the Beatles song at the beginning of the race and had on specially made Yellow Submarine shirts. It was made out of PVC pipe.

This year's King of The Hill was actually her second year of being Queen of the Hill! 

This last photo is of two very competitive brothers, Andrew and Christian. Notice how they are both aimed in opposite direction instead of straight down the course. They knew that the fastest way down was to start by heading to the outside to get more momentum going with the crown of the road in the middle. Brilliant!

Of course now Rat Sass is stored away for next year, but there are big plans to make it go even faster by making some sort of aerodynamic body for it. We shall see what happens next November.