It's Soapbox Derby time. Vliho Yacht Club set the challenge, home build, no more in the budget than 50 Euros (money put in by one of the other long term liveaboards) and must carry a passenger (yours truly). Purchasing commitee went along to the local bike shop and got him to donate bike wheels and a couple of frames, then to the steel merchant for some mild steel box section for the frame and the woodmerchant for some ply for the body. The assistant manager in the Marina gathered up a few dead cycles that had been lying around for months and donated them to the cause.
The build team consisted of English and Swedish, the English nearly ended up lamping each other on more than one occassion, the Swedish just worked away quietly providing sensible and capable skills. The build stage complete the buggy went off to the driver(ex parachute James Bond type) for it's paint job. He was left in relative peace to complete this stage for some reason.
Buggy was tested on the only small hill in the Marina and proved to be scarily quick. Couple of days later we drove the course, 1.5kilometers down a typical Greek road ending at the main road between Nidri and Vliho - scary!! Free wheeling in the car we reached 55 MILES per hour before having to brake, with our bums so close to the ground in the buggy this was going to be seriously frightening.
Test Day. Off to the course for some testing. About 8 runs later we were ready, we knew the course and had our best speed at 60kph !! We could do the whole run without touching the brakes. Bring on the big day.
Derby Day. A fabulous day, sunny and even a bit warm. We all assembled at the start point for scrutineering (a term very loosely used). Of the 11 entrants we thought there were 3 others that may give us a run for our money. The order of the day was 2 timed runs to determine grid position then the race. We had our first run at 2.28mins for the 1.5k's. Second run at 2.3mins. that put us 2nd on the grid. Nerves were tingling now, it was all to fight for, our chance for glory! Our pusher was ready, our pit crew milling around, driver having a nervous fag and yours truly trying to keep them all focused.
Countdown!! We were off, we got a great start and went immediately into the lead. We kept the lead for the firs
t half of the race then through the slow incline we were caught and passed by the eventual winner. Not only did they pass us but the next bugger also passed us - this wasn't good. But as we started the 2nd decline we rapidly picked up speed and regained 2nd place after some very close passing. Down the last straight towards the finish line in a blaze of glory but alsas only 2nd place. MARK IS STILL SULKING!!!
t half of the race then through the slow incline we were caught and passed by the eventual winner. Not only did they pass us but the next bugger also passed us - this wasn't good. But as we started the 2nd decline we rapidly picked up speed and regained 2nd place after some very close passing. Down the last straight towards the finish line in a blaze of glory but alsas only 2nd place. MARK IS STILL SULKING!!!See more piccies here
Watch the video here
