2014 Derby Recap

We had 24 legal car entries this year!  Below are all of the entries.  For those of you who are hesitant to make cars, just remember that an elaborate car isn't necessarily a fast car.  A fast car can have a rather simple design, so don't let the fancier cars intimidate you.

Elizabeth vs. Bennett

Kelly vs. Maya

Suzanne vs. Rosaline

Jason vs. Davis

Paul vs. Michael

Pete vs. Lydia

Bruce vs. Dekota

Sheron vs. Blanche (who painted her car with nail polish!)

Boy Chris vs. Fran

DJ vs. Girl Chris

Kristin vs. Caitlyn

Jad vs. Thomas

 

The somewhat hard to read scoreboard

Dekota with his trophy

Slowest Cargoes to DJ

After the races for Fastest and Slowest it was time to race the Blast Cars.  For those of you unfamiliar with these, they are powered by a CO2 cartridge.

Dekota vs. Bruce

Rosaline vs. Girl Chris

Michael vs. Caitlyn

Jad vs. Pete

Boy Chris vs. Bennett

And the winner of the Fastest Blast Car goes to Bruce!

After the Blast Car race we awarded all of the trophies, including the awards for Best in Show.  In earlier years we had those who didn't make a car confer and award Best in Show.  We've since changed things to have everyone cast their vote before the races start.  As the kids have grown up and have had more involvement with making their own cars we've created two Best in Show awards, one for youth and another for adult.
 
Caitlin's awesome solar system car won the Best in Show by a Youth!

Best in Show by an Adult (complete with leather interior, suspension system, doors that open, and a middle seat the folds up) goes to Girl Chris!

And some other fun photos

Pre-race display

And now racing with the car inside the float

Love Derby Day!

Date set for 2014 Derby

We have a date for this year's Derby: July 26th.

Categories, like always, include Fastest, Slowest, and Best in Show (both adult and youth), as well as Fastest BlastCar. 

We have, however, decided to eliminate the category for Illegal cars.  When the category was created, it was intended for rockets, remote controls, non-traditional materials, etc.  Over time it has mostly become a category for cars that couldn't get down to regulation weight.  If this applies to your car, we will likely still allow you to race as an illegal, there just won't be a trophy.

The other thing that's new this year, is that we are asking competitors to pay an entry fee.  Not only will this cover consumables like CO2 cartridges for the BlastCars, but we would like to upgrade to an aluminum track which is out of our budget ($700-1,000).  This should help to eliminate some of the lane advantages that currently exist.  Please pay an amount that you/ your family are comfortable with.  We likely won't be able to raise enough to buy the track next year, but we hope it won't take too long.

2013 Derby recap

I had mistakenly advertised the Derby this year as the 11th Annual.  I was wrong.  This was the 10th year.

In typical Breecher/Tedford/Bredford fashion, we were busy working on our cars the night before.  In fact,  we didn't start our  Blast Cars until the night before.  I finished painting them the morning of the Derby, and Chris added the wheels about an hour before people arrived.

We had quite the turnout!  29 legal cars, 4 illegal, and 7 Blast Cars.  All those races took quite a while!

Caitlyn vs. Nat

Dekota vs. DJ

Michael vs. York

Fran vs. Seaghan

Kelly vs. Kristin

Bruce vs. Anclia

Pete vs. Rosita

Grace vs. Jeff

Elizabeth vs. Girl Chris

Leslie vs. Jack

Jason vs. Bill

Bennett vs. Davis

Lydia vs. Boy Chris

Lydia vs. Rosaline

Andie had a bye through a couple of heats.

Here's a look at the bracket for fastest car.  Seaghan won.

And then we raced for slowest car.  Here's that bracket.  Natalie won.

Then it was time for the Illegal cars.

Michelle vs. Sheron

Jeff vs. Sheron

The bracket for the Illegal Cars

And finally, it was time for the Blast Cars!

Bennett vs. Jeff

Emily vs. Girl Chris

Bruce vs. Boy Chris

Bruce vs. Michael (who previously had a bye).

The bracket for the Blast Cars.

And now for a look at the trophy winners!

Best in Show- Youth

Fastest Car

Fastest Illegal Car

Best in Show- Adult

Slowest Car

Fastest Blast Car

I didn't take too many pictures of spectators, but here's one of the crowd during the race.  Yay for all of Bennett's teachers coming.  Now we just need to get them to make cars for next year.  :)