The Mitre 10 carpark was transformed into a race course as eight local primary schools went head-to-head in the third annual Mitre 10 Interschool Pushcart competition.
Cheered on by local rally superstar Hayden Paddon, the school pupils raced around the track in carts they had put together themselves from kit sets provided to them by Mitre 10.
The goal was to set the fastest time around the figure eight course, with each school racing four times.
The school with the lowest average of their fastest four times would be declared the winner and receive a $500 donation for them to use on whatever they wanted.
Each school nominated a pusher and driver, with several schools even bringing along extra pupils to form pit crews.
Event organiser Lisa Scammell said the event started as way to do something around Hayden Paddon, with him being sponsored by Mitre
10.
‘‘We wanted something more than just him standing there signing things, so we thought we’d create something to do with racing, and it has just grown into a bit of a tradition from there.’’
She said when they dropped the cart kits off to schools, she was surprised to see many still had their cart from last year on display.
‘‘The schools obviously really appreciate the opportunity, which is great to see.’’
Mrs Scammell said the carts are relatively easy to put together.
‘‘They’re not to hard to put together — normally a caretaker or teacher will help which is quite cool, one school had a granddad help.
‘‘The axles are all on, it’s just a kitset, not from scratch.’’
She said it could be a challenging event to arrange but it was a blast to do.
‘‘We love the event. We didn’t have much of a warmup to get this one organised, but we make it happen and it’s a great community event and having someone like Hayden involved is really special, especially since he is local.
‘‘It’s great to have him come down especially after a big win and still do events like these, it’s really cool.’’
Mrs Scammell said the event was really well supported, and she loved seeing how many people would come and watch.
‘‘It gets pretty full-on, and every year it just seems to grow, it’s all pretty exciting, I love seeing what the kids come up with and seeing how creative they get.’’
The competition this year was won by the Bluestone Sharks team and their colourful flaming cart.
