Becky and Rob Skipworth, along with the collective input of family and friends, built their own car to compete in the local “Soapbox Challenge”, and were delighted to be crowned champions.
Many thanks to Becky Skipworth for providing such an enjoyable report of her team’s exploits at the Kop Hill Soapbox Challenge.
Kop Hill Climb is a charitable classic car event, raising fund. It is held to raise funds for local charities. In order to encourage family participation they have developed the “Soapbox Challenge”. It is aimed at groups of young people aged between 10 and 17 years old. The challenge was for a team of six to build a soapbox car to see how far it could travel unpowered down a course. The event was well attended, with no less than 15 entries from scout groups, friends and family combinations. Rob and Becky Skipworth took up the challenge with their cousins Catherine and Edward, and friends Thomas and Gareth. There were two classes of car, a single seater and a double seater. The cars were built over the summer with specialist engineering input from Grandad.
Race day consisted of three practice runs in the morning, followed by three measured runs in the afternoon. The soapboxes were pushed up a ramp and then, gravity took control down a measured course. The course covered about 100m, including a navigating a chicane, climbing a ramp and turning around a corner. The car which travelled the furthest was the winner. The younger members of our team drove (as they were the smallest and lightest), whilst the older ones did a lot of the pushing back up the slope. After the practice runs, modifications were made to the car and plenty of oil was applied to the wheel bearings. We were delighted that all our team’s hard work was rewarded with a first in both classes! As always, the drivers took the glory and trophies.