Derby ‘just a good family day out’
The trolleys went fast and so did the sausages in Eltham on Sunday.
The annual Eltham Trolley Derby 2016 attracted 15 trolleys, which were driven down a steep hill on Dalziel Rd.
It was an awesome day, organiser Glenn Hansen said.
‘‘We’ve been going for 16 years. We do it just because we can. It’s just a good family day out.’’
One year it was cancelled because of the weather, but Sunday’s weather was great, he said.
The trolleys were all home made - some more professional than others - but all had to comply to the regulations, which included no rope steering.
The trolleys had to have direct steering and the brakes had to be fitted and working, he said.
‘‘For safety reasons there was only one trolley allowed on the course, helmets and covered shoes had to be worn, along with full length clothing.’’ Safety was a big thing, he said. ‘‘There were some brilliant machines. People had gone to a lot of trouble.’’
Competitors ranged from aged 3 or 4 to 40 plus, he said.
But unlike other years the speed of the home made trolleys wasn’t able to be recorded.
In the past the police have come and used speed guns to record the speed, but this year they were busy, Hansen said.
‘‘I’ll have to work on something for next year.
‘‘We used an app downloaded on an iphone, but it wasn’t very good.’’
On one occasion it recorded the trolley going 92 kilometres an hour, Hansen said.
‘‘It was fast, but it was not going 92kmh.’’
The sausage sizzle ran out of sausages twice and they had to run out and buy some more, he said.
‘‘We have good sponsors, so can run the event and give spot prizes, such as jelly beans and drink bottles.’’
- Helen Harvey