Congratulations to our team of apprentices, who designed and built the soapbox karts, bringing home the 1st and 2nd place trophies at this weekend’s Billericay Soapbox Derby!

As well as the two fastest track times of the day, we also picked up the award for “Best Constructed Soapbox”, for the second year running.

Following our narrow second place finish at last years’ event, the team were keen to improve the karts and go one step further to claim the winners trophy.

The track at Billericay has a unique set of challenges; a four-foot ramp, two large jumps, and a hay bale chicane, all to be taken at speeds reaching 26mph! A demanding course that has claimed the ‘lives’ of many karts over the years!

Our engineering apprentices, who had in 2023 led the programme to design and build the soapbox karts, got to work re-engineering and re-building elements of each kart to improve the performance – especially over the jumps.

Another weekend of glorious sunshine set up the event perfectly. With thousands of spectators flocking to see a creative mixture of sublime and ridiculous – from racing cars to racing cows! Supported by music, entertaining dance routines and costumes, a great day of entertainment was had all round.

From the outset, our karts performed incredibly well. The adjustments made to the karts this year by the apprentices proved decisive, improving the ride over the jumps and improving our times on last year by over one second! The drivers did an excellent job of handling the course, and the ‘pushers’ set them off perfectly.

For the second year running, we also picked up the award for “Best Constructed Soapbox”. A great testament to the work of the engineering apprentices.

It was great to see so many people, so many teams, returning and new, families and friends enjoying the atmosphere of a great event. With classic cars, great food, live music and the track itself,

Big thanks to the Billericay Mayflower Rotary Club for putting on such a fantastic event.