Large crowds gathered on Saturday to enjoy the thrills and spills of the Douglas Soapbox Race.

Thirty three karts, in all manner of shapes and sizes, took it in turns to hurtle down the large ramp at the top of Upper Church Street and on down the course, flying past Hill Street, over Athol Street and past Shaw’s Brow, negotiating several jumps along the way. Many of them then came to grief on the sharp right-hander before the finish by Lord Street.

Each competitor had three runs with prizes for the biggest jump, the fastest speed clocked , the overall winner, the corporate winner and the best kart.

Number 26, ’Evil K’NEIGH’vel’, aka Juan Collister, won the prize for the best fall, having managed to crash on each of his three runs.

The overall winner was number 10, Last of the Summer Whine, driven by John Hunter who also clocked the fastest speed at 27mph; second was number 29, Leeroy’s Banger with butcher Lee Mayers, and third was number one, Black Bush 1, with Kirsty Russell.

First in the corporate class was number 21, Target Tools - Kiarty’s Engineering, with Mark Scrivens; biggest jump was number 25, Howdens driven by Darren Birchall, and best turned out kart was number 3, KARS/Southern 100 with Japanese entret Kiichi Akiyama.