All American Soap Box Derby 2009
All American Soapbox Derby On Sunday, 15th March, the West Auckland Regional Championship was held at Westgate.
This was quite a big event with 70 students from 15 schools participating. Massey High, Sunderland College and Taupaki School each had two cars.
Our students were very keen and enthusiastic participants. They enjoyed practice racing downhill on the other end of Westgate Drive on evenings and the weekend prior to the event.
On one of those practice afternoons, a derby car belonging to another school went out of control and careered into our car, smashing the body, steering and base. Fortunately, the body was a loan one whilst ours was on display at WestCity. The team worked all day on Monday rebuilding and making adjustments so that we could practice that evening. All the team worked really well together and demonstrated great camaraderie.
With successive practice, all the drivers became well acquainted with the car and knew how to make all the repairs and adjustments to steering, brakes, etc. It was also great having parents who helped transport the car from the bottom of the hill back up to the top so that all drivers present were able to get many runs downhill, and improve their techniques.
The race day came and our team was excited. Ours was the first race of the day. Sean Firman took an excellent line and won that race. After that, no-one received notice of who won the succeeding races. We had to wait until the end of the day to find out who was in the top eight. Unfortunately, Team McLaren was not mentioned. I am, nevertheless, very proud of each and every one of our team who took part. They displayed excellent teamwork and were great sportsmen and women.
I would also like to especially thank Mr and Mrs Firman who gave up a lot of their time, and also transported the derby car to practices, back to school for repairs, to more practices, to scrutineering, there for the big event and finally, returning to car back to school. Without their help, we would not have been able to enter and compete at this event. Thank you also to the parents of the team for supporting your children at the practices and at the championship.
Our drivers at the championships were: Sean Firman, Jazmen Edwards, Joel Armitstead and Michael Allport.
Our pitcrew were: Zarne Sheppard, Jordy Toka, Marco Ogden and Detroit Wilson.
Thanks to you all! N. Parker
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