BROCKWEIR was the setting for the village’s first Soapbox Derby on Saturday, as 19 home-made go-karts hurtled down Mill Hill.

Adam Sinfield was one of the event’s organisers, telling the Review: “26 competitors took part in ‘Brake for the Border’ and most of them were local. The youngest was 16 years-old and the oldest in his late-50s and around 1,000 people came along to watch.”

The event was a time trial and the fastest time went to a team from Leicester who completed the 600m course in 44.3 seconds. The highest recorded speed was 38 miles an hour, set by Soapbot Robot from Brockweir.

Adam added: “The highlight of the event was very definitely the way the community pulled together. This was a real team effort with over 70 local people turning out to help us prepare, including some who have never got involved before, which was great to see.

“We’d particularly like to thank Certus Construction – the family live locally and they gave us a huge amount of support with equipment and organisation of the event.

“We’ll definitely be running Brockweir Soap­box Derby again next year and will be pushing for junior entrants to take part as well as adults. We think a lot of parents wanted to see how well organised the event was, but we were very careful. The winning team crashed after they passed the finish line; their kart was a write-off but we’re pleased to report that there were no injuries at all during the event.”