1. Adam Cock - Calders & GrandidgeWe had our first season last year in the guise of Team Danger Mouse and had some success - our best result being at Harrogate. This year we are
racing as Team Fireman Sam – our vehicle is one of Sam’s fleet called Venus. Please come and support us – Sam would love to see you!! |
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2. Ashley SmithWe are a family amateur team with a thirst for speed the cart is based on a Classic F3 race car using the word based loosely.
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3. Team Devil - Delihah
Team Devil have 6 karts in total and these are our favourites.
Delilah, I’m ashamed to say I bought ready built and is a little legend in the inner circles, an extremely fast Kart which Craig is trying to tame. ‘If you can’t beat it, buy it!’ |
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4. Team Devil - Specky
Specky is one of our Speckarts we are building to bring a one series championship to Karting, side by side racing, safe, quick and cheap. |
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5. Team Devil - Gavin
Gavin was our first build for Ben, 7 years ago, only based on photos from the internet and with the intention to only use what we could find or scavenge. The kart has had a few crashes along the way, which has forced us to alter and upgrade, Ben still drives Gavin and thinks it is simply the best Kart on the circuit. |
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6. Skinny Blackdog - Roderick Kent
Team Blackdog has been racing for about seven years now. In its present incarnation The Blackdog is designed to combine the two wheel fun of gravity bike (which I tried for a couple of seasons and is tremendous fun) with the lying down comort of cartie racing (ho ho). Basically a stripped down cart which can be flatpacked for transport or during the off season. It has the flies in your teeth feel of G biking but without the constricion of a standard carts bodywork (or coffin assembly as I prefer to call it). The cart in this form has been racing (fairly creditably) for about three seasons. The team consists of a designer, constructor, driver and track support all packaged in one person. |
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7. Team Tortoise - Julian Hinchcliffe
This is our 4th year of competition (2nd year at Harewood) and our 1st year with 2 carts. |
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8. Team Tortoise - Toby Hinchcliffe
We are still trying to improve and not end up in the hedges, if Toby crashes anymore we are going to start getting charged for replacement fence panels. |
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9. Pickard Event Services
So, have you guessed yet? We're the organising team. We have enjoyed Soap Box events for over three years. We shamefully bought our Soap Box that had been hidden in someones shed, but a least she is dusted off and up and running. We hope you enjoy the event! |
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10. "Where's me spanners?"
1st event was Cairngorm Extreme 2011 (Came 14th out of 40 starters) 2nd event Dalby Forest 2011 (Trophy for ‘Best Turned Out’) 2012 saw us enter the Scottish Cartie Association Championship Eventful rain drenched meetings saw us end the series as SCA Cartie Champions (Joint with team Alford)… 2013 – Present day We’ve been at race meetings in… Border Bogies (Denholme) Cairngorm Extreme (Aviemore) Screwfix Off-Road (Winners in Shropshire, 2nd and 5th at National final in Scotland) Humber Bridge Belchford (Lincolnshire) Hawksland Hill (Scotland) Worlaby (Linconshire) Brechin Halloween (Scotland) Dalby Forest (Yorkshire) Coleby (Lincolnshire) Eastnor castle (Worcestershire) Harewood (You know this one !) Penn House Grand Prix (Amersham) East Coast Challenge – Maryland. USA We’ve picked up a few trophies along the way… Which may have put us in your ‘Pro’ category… But this year at Harewood, we’re going to be driving a ‘Fun’ cart… We call them ‘Spec Karts’ ! |
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11. Ted Leahy
We will be racing a highly tuned steam roller, sorry I mean 'Landy' Soap Box. Richard is currently adding weight, I mean carefully redesigning the old soapbox to resemble a Land Rover. A Huge butterfly snow plough blade was considered to ensure safe removal of anything that gets in our way but due to time constraints we are just going to have to stick with a front bumper. Brakes... well who needs brakes anyway! |
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12. Andy Ash
He may not admit it but this guy is a trojan. He has bent over backwards to make this event happen. He is well known on the Gravity circuit. MASSIVE THANK YOU MR ASH! "Bit about us !! Leeds based Team. Been racing now for a few years up and down the UK, and further afield.Looking forward to the pre race Bash Saturday, as much as running down the hallowed tarmac of Harewood. Bring It On !!" |
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13. Martin Butler
Team Roadrunner has been around for about five year although I was introduced two years earlier by my team mate Barron Hall who's dad built fun carts. Roadrunner 1 (Yellow) is the first cart that was built followed by roadrunner 2 (black) both carts where built by Barron Hall and have proved to be very strong carts. Both have been crash tested ( for safety reasons not running out of talent reasons obviously). |
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14. Brian Bennett
,I am 69 years old , am a volunteer driver for the NHS, I race at Harewood last year , and have spent the winter building a new bogie , and had a couple of wins this year , I don't have a team, just poor old me. |
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15. Mark Roberts Engineering
Our car is based on a classic sports car built by us at our fabrication shop in Middlesbrough we have only competed twice before this event and are very keen to see your course and we are using a new driver for this event too (Marc Upex) so should be a good day for all |
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16. Simon Graeme Auto Service Centre
A team of 4 Yorkshire-based mechanics, all working at Simon Graeme’s Auto Service Centre. Our first soap box race was back in 2015 and we finished in 2nd place! After a couple of modifications to our soap box this year, with Simon at the wheel we’re hoping to go one place better in our second run out. |
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17. Casey Handby
We are a amateur team never done it before we are some of the maintenance team and were doing it for the childrens ward which is nightingale ward. |
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18. Matthew Harrison
This soapbox is based on two pushbike frames running 20" wheels. It has been upgraded since I started using it by improving the brakes and lowering the ground clearance. This soapbox has competed at Worlaby, Windmill Hill, Belchford and Coleby. We have achieved two third places at Worlaby and has performed better than expected at the other events we have competed in. Although this is are first time at Harewood Soapbox challenge. |
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19. Andy Northfield - Fastlane Displays
Living life in the Fastlane (Pun Intended). Meeting up with colleagues and friends for team building a fun. Will the Fastlane 2017 Soap Box last longer than it’s 2015 predecessor??????? |
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20. Mike Jennings - Lambert Engineering
TAD 1 was originally designed and built as an apprentice project at Lambert Engineering Limited for our local charity race at Windmill Hill during 2013. The team of six apprentices aided by senior mentor Mike Jennings built TAD 1 in approximately six weeks. One company philosophy at Lamberts is ‘right first time’ and TAD 1 has proved to be just that securing multiple wins from the same basic design and layout. Only three subtle changes have taken place and they are:- rack and pinion steering, brakes on all four wheels and seating position of the driver. TAD 1 has been photographed with Guy Martin on board when he was researching for the soapbox world speed record and also with MP Nick Clegg when he visited Lamberts during a nation apprentice week initiative. We are now on our fourth generation of apprentices competing in TAD 1. Regular drivers Ben Newby and Kieran Clark are on holiday for the Harwood event so first year apprentices Alex Hinsley and Zach Hampshire are stepping up to the mark supported by previous driver Cameron Calvert. Hopefully, subject to production TAD 1 will have some new wheels for Harwood so despite having a few minor battle scars we intend to be as competitive as ever! |
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21. Justin Greaves
This is my third year competing in the British Gravity Bike Championship, and although I'm older than the rest, I'm currently joint 1st going into this, our last points race of the 2017 season. I run as Rat Racing - Gravity Bike Team, and this year I teamed up with my good buddy Ian Round to form I.R. Rat Racing. We have already won the team championship. |
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22. Ian Round
I've been Gravity Bike racing since 2002. I'm not invincible but I am consistently one of the quickest riders in the UK. Prefer long fast tracks, Harewood is my favorite venue! Closely followed by Scammonden, but haven't had a race there for a few years.... Head to head racing is my favorite format so really looking forward to the racing. The bike was first built in 2005 but has been gradually improved to it's current configuration. All but the rear spoke cover is commercially available so anyone could build a similar, competitive bike with no fabrication skills specifically needed. Just a bit of 'bike mechanic' know how and away you go :-) |
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23. Geoff Burton
I first got involved in gravity racing about ten years ago .a couple of years later I built a sidecar [now much modified to have a go . i then got together with some mates and we ran at cadwell park for a couple of years. We then found a better hill at worlaby and have had some good events there . I have won a few times with my brother in law as passenger but unfortunately he cant make your event . we have done other events with some success. we are looking forward to it and wish you good luck . |
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24. Will Feather
We are team Gravity Rash Our drivers are Will Feather, James Roberts and Mark Feather. We entered Harewood last with this machine a 3 wheeler which was very slow and very unstable so we have added an extra wheel and improved braking to help... |
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25. Jim Croisdale
I'm a one man, design, build and drive team, and Harewood is my first ever gravity race. In 2016 and 2017 I've built my workshop and taught myself to weld and fabricate, and for the last few weeks I've been very busy building my gravity racer, trying to hit the deadline that I foolishly signed up for... It will be great to test the car in anger and see how it goes, and I'm also looking forwards to meeting the other teams and enjoying the day. Fingers crossed for nice weather! I've got a website you can find at leedsgravityracing.wordpress.com. See you on the 20th! |
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26. Simon Bell - Ad Bell Sign Systems
Ad Bell are a signmaking company based in Harrogate, not a million miles away from the track at Harewood. After a staff member competed in the Valley Gardens race in 2016, the idea was in place for a full team entry into the 2017 race at Harewood. Unfortunately, the Valley Gardens car was not available, so the Ad Bell engineers have been very busy "modifying" another car to be ready for the race. The team are confident that it will reach the bottom of the course, although much of the run may be on the grass rather than the tarmac... You can find Ad Bell at www.adbell.co.uk |
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27. Neil Nutting
Mainly we are a farther and son team have fun on a low budget. Yes we have been doing this for 7 years and we are currently on kart number 2. So I put us in the pro class 😃 We came second last year at this event don't think we will do that again 😂 |
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28. Stephen Thomas
Well as i don't get paid to do this it makes us all amateur but if there are classes i would be in the pro. |
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29. Mark Tindley - Synthotech
Synthotech are delighted to be supporting the Soap Box Derby for the second year with Thomas the Tank Engine |
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30. Hartley Racing Team
Based in Portsmouth Hampshire, we originally started competing in gravity racing in 2010 but took a break at the end of 2011 till the start of 2017. It will be our first time racing at Harewood. We are a pro team and this will be our 5th event of the year. It's been a challenging year with finding the limits of the new cart but we took 2nd place at Richards Castle. |
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31. Paul Cross
From the alpine regions of East Anglia this father and son team know only one way to get down a hill: flat out. In their second season of racing, EAMR will definitely put on a show in the pursuit of style as well as speed. |
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32. Stef Cree
After racing soap boxes last yr I decided to run 2 wheels this year be entering the British gravity bike championship. I'm in my rookie yr at 43 yrs old and currently lie 4th in the over all championships. 2 wheels is way more exciting then 4 for sure. More risky but not adrenaline and adrenaline is good. |
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33. Richard Burton - Team Acceleramus
We are a father and daughter joint effort team. Dad, Richard, does all the effort and Katie hangs around the joint. On race days near to home a motley crew of helpers turn up to provide some muscle, encouragement and sausage sandwiches. Luckily consuming bacon butties and pork pies actually makes us go faster – see us in the pits for an explanation provided you bring calorie laden comestibles. This is our second year of racing after a stumbling across a gravity race in September 2015. Katie got enthusiastic and Dad was commanded to provide a cart. Because we share the driving (not at the same time) I had to make allowance for our different sizes. Him - 6 foot 12½ stone, her - 5’ 2” 8 stone. Last year we had a lot of fun, travelled to parts of the Realm where wussy Londoners normally fear to go and met loads of lovely people. We learnt a lot about how to make the cart go faster (or at least stop bits falling off) and actually managed to win something. The soapbox is perhaps a bit over engineered but at least it’s strong which was appreciated by Katie when she decided to drive the cart over rather than round a couple of hay bales. Only her pride was dented - as were all four wheels. Tip for budding soapbox constructors - start collecting those BMX wheels now. For some inexplicable reason Dad covered the body with green 3D vinyl wrap (that’s sticky back plastic to the Blue Peter generation). Only later did he find out from Katie, a massive Harry Potter fan, that green is the colour of the dreaded Slytherin House at Hogwarths! Testing is bit challenging if you live, as we do, in an urban area. Early morning forays down a local street brings bemused smiles to dawn joggers and dog walkers though one car driver was very surprised as Katie waved as she passed him. Latterly, testing has been restricted as the local authority has changed the speed limit from 30 to 20mph! Rain or shine we hope to put on a good show and always happy to answer questions, perhaps so you can build your own cart. |
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34. Zack Leader
2017 has been the most successful season of his career so far for Zack Leader, after taking his debut win in BGBC at Round 2 as well as taking two 2nd places and two 3rd places. The 18-year-old Kirton Lindsey kid is determined, passionate, and has a point to prove. Can 2017 be the year he takes the BGBC title? |
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35. Peter Johnson - Monkey Business
We are a gravity sidecar team called “Monkey Business”. The team comprises Dick Black (Driver) and Peter Thompson (Passenger). We have been involved with soapbox racing for about fifteen years and used to run Belchford Downhill Challenge. We have run a gravity sidecar outfit since 2013 and our current machine’s chassis was built for the 2014 season. The outfit has evolved and been modified since then, with improvements such as a more aerodynamic body and stronger brakes, which have kept us competitive. |
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36. Joe Thompson
Road Racing’s most promising new talent, Joey
Thompson, made an impressive debut to gravity bike racing last time out, showing he can go fast on any bike, engine or not! A podium could be on the cards here for the lad they call ‘Joey Yorkshire’! |
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37. Michael Barnard
We are a small 'amateur' team hoping to have fun and to raise money and awareness for the charity, Martin House children's hospice. This hospice provides family led care and support for children and young people with life shortening conditions, they rely mostly on donations and fundraising to provide this care and support so it was an excellent opportunity to use the soapbox to be part of our campaign. If you feel like you would like to help by donating to this great cause we do have a Just giving page. https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/stonegatemedicalclinic The soapbox has been constructed by Mike Barnard and sponsored by Stonegate Medical Clinic which is a private GP clinic based in the centre of York. The team itself consists of Stonegate Medical Clinic's managing director David Grabowski, Doctor Aaron Brown and Patient Coordinator Jhordan Barnard. Jhordan's husband Mike Barnard has devoted his spare time to constructing the soapbox for the team and is keen to test it at Harewood. Other team members may also be there on the day to cheer the team on! We are all excited to take part in this event and hope the soapbox can hold a strong place amongst the other more experienced teams. |
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38. Michael Wilson
There are 4 people in the team including myself. The soap box has been designed and built by the Selby College Full Time Apprentices. The Apprentices are from two Engineering companies, Lamberts Engineering and Warburtons. |
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39. "On my own by Miles" - James Miles
Inherited a Soap Box with the aim of forming a team but ended up on my own. The stubborn guy that I am and with the urge not to give up, here we go! I would have liked to have tinkered more and improved the Soap Box further but it is what it is which ain't too bad! 
41. Simon Melton Team Transplant was formed last year to build a race cart for the first ever Micklegate Run Soapbox Challange and we raised £3500 for the Leeds Renal Transplant Ward that carried out my wife's life saving operation in 2014. This year we are raising money for another cause very close to our hearts, The Yorkshire Air Ambulance, a charity totally funded by the generous donations from the people of Yorkshire. If we can match last years total that will cover the cost of ONE flight......Think on NEXT time it could be your LIFE they save. 
43. Danny Floyde
Young gun Danny Floyde has been improving vastly all season and is now really getting to grips with his machine, is a podium on the cards here? |
40. Graham Thompson - Red Eye Racing
This is a picture of this years Red Eye Sidecar the winner of last years sidecar trophy at Harewood so coming back to defend our crown. Driver is Graham Thompson and the monkey is Jono Searby. 
42. Chris Webster
Toothless was originally built at home in the Scottish Borders in 2015 and is ever evolving. I have taken part in the Border Bogie Challenge at Denholm and Hawksland Hill Run near Glasgow and had success in both events. Looking forward to my first time competing at Harewood. 
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44. Matthew Harrison
This is are first scratch built soapbox racer which has taken a lot longer than expected to build it has been developed over the last couple of years to try to improve it and make it more reliable.It is now usually the faster of are two carts.It has completed at Worlaby and Coleby gravity races but is still work in progress. This is the teams first time competing at harewood and we are looking forward to what looks like a challenging course. The gravity racing bug has bitten and we have now been competing for around 5 years. This cart is to be piloted by Matthew Harrison and the other original cart is to be piloted by my work mate Jason Fox that has just been bitten by the gravity racing bug after his first ever outing at Worlaby this year. |