The best turned out kart in this year’s Douglas Soapbox Derby was an entry that had come from the other side of the world to take part.

The KARS/Southern100 team, driven by Kiichi Akiyama and Hiroshi Yoshimatsu, was taking part to promote their new sidecar concept.

The team came from the Cyclist Safety Association, which has its base in Tokyo and has long held a connection with the island and our motorbike races.

Midori Hasegawa, who works for CSA and travelled to the island with the team, told the Manx Independent why they chose to enter the Soapbox Derby.

Midori said: ’We have many good friends here.

’Our company’s chief director came here for 35 years and have a good relationship with racing people. We want to continue this valuable relationship.’

The team from Japan has spent some time in the island this year, having taken in some of the racing and they were welcomed by the Southern 100 Supporters’ Club.

A post on the club’s Facebook page said: ’We had a fantastic meeting last night with Naoki Hagiwara and Midori Hasegawa from CSA, we are hopeful of some exciting things happening very soon.

’They really are great people with a real passion for the Southern 100 and the Isle of Man.’

However, the trip is not all about making and building friendships, the CSA team were also on the island to promote their new sidecar concept.

Midori said: ’We know that at present the sidecar market is shrinking and we decided to do something to promote that market. Then we made a team and started manufacturing a new concept sidecar. As we knew there are some soapbox races in the Isle of Man, we decided to enter it to show people our sidecar.’

On the CSA’s website, it said the sidecar ’can be easily assembled and removed, and it can also be used for checked in baggage, so you can carry it anywhere in Japan or anywhere in the world’.

There are pictures and results from the Microgaming Douglas Soapbox Derby in this week’s Examiner.