This year's Hibiscus Coast Soap Box Derby will be held on Saturday 21 March in Brightside Road. It will be a fantastic day of thrills and spills with Super Stock racing. It will be a huge event with family fun and entertainment.
The team is practising hard to get the most speed possible out of its trolley. Expertise mixed with enthusiasm will make for an entertaining day.
For full information on this action-packed community day, go to www.Hibiscuslink
Last year was the first day our school had participated and details are shown below.
The Soapbox Derby Team - 3 April 2008
The trolley Derby team's Story
Recently 10 schools raced trolleys down the hill on Pinecrest Rd at Gulf Harbour. Along with all the other schools, our trolley was imported from America by Hibiscus Coast Rotary Club, and Sarah Carr organised the event, so we want to thank them for making it all happen.
First, some volunteers - Charlie Dee, Jaeden James, Josh Hohaia, Robert Perren and lots of others helped build Whangaparaoa School's trolley along with the help of Ainslie Davies and our Principal, Mr Collins.
Then Mr Davies selected the team - pupils who wanted to drive were tested down our custom made ramp. We went through every year 6 class and finally selected eight pupils. The pit crew were Charlie Dee, Jaeden James, Robert Perren and Ethan McCathie and the drivers were Jordan Pope, Sam Ball, Adam Brown and Joshua Hohaia.
Then came the first scrutineering at Whangaparaoa College where we learnt how everything had to be done. The trolley had to be put together perfectly and there were really strict rules about how you did it- you had to do everything exactly right or it would have been disqualified.
Next we had some great sponsors - Hopper Bros sponsored the painting and other costs associated with the trolley race, so we want to pass on a BIG thank you to them for helping us so much - our trolley was wonderful and we could not have entered the race without their help.
Mr Davies designed the painting of our trolley to look like an orca, the emblem of our school, and Mike Butt Panelbeaters and Stripe Co did the painting and stickers. When it was all finished, it looked amazing.
We travelled to Roberts Rd to train our drivers, and although everyone was very worried at first, our drivers turned out to be just the best - we had no accidents at all, although some schools had to rebuild their entire trolleys with new axles and everything after they had crashed.
On the race day, our team did very well - Josh Hohaia was selected as one of the best drivers, we came fourth and got a cup. Next year we are going to win the whole race.
