TURNERS FALLS — Eighteen go-karts rounded the curve on Unity Park’s hill Sunday as part of a sixth annual Montague Soapbox Derby, which organizer Mik Muller deemed a great success.
Sunday’s event, which brought in around half the number of participants as it had last year, still garnered enough interest to fill out three age brackets of racers. Aside from three “spills,” the races “got off without a hitch under glorious blue skies” after starting at around noon, Muller wrote in a statement.
Muller said the Montague Soapbox Derby’s success felt particularly special considering Greenfield’s event was canceled this year due to a lack of interest.
“It felt great that Montague is still interested and excited about it,” he said.
The pool of 20 racers — some of whom shared go-karts — included three in the children’s division, five in the teens division and 12 in the adults division. For the first time, all racers were from western Massachusetts, coming from Greenfield, New Salem, Erving, Northfield, Orange, Wendell, Gill, Amherst and Montague, according to Muller.
Greenfield resident Hugo Taggert and the “Speeding Scouts” car placed first in the children’s division with a time of 43.96 seconds. Erving resident Jenna Petrowicz and the “Fastest Little Indian” car placed first in the teens division with a time of 52.83 seconds. Northfield resident Brian Bodenstein of the Bodie Brothers Racing team placed first in the adults division with a time of 45.52 seconds.
“It was good that we had a wide variety of non-professional carts that were really at the heart of the event,” said Muller, who added that in previous years, repeat winners would dominate the competition. “Some of them got it right and were really, really fast.”
Muller said even the accidents were “spectacular,” with three incidents resulting in no serious injuries.
“Three racers had spills, the most spectacular of which was by teen division ‘Troll Pride’ racer Lia Little, whose steering failed and she careened to the right on the initial downhill straightaway, rolling her cart into the tree-belt,” Muller wrote in a statement. He added that “Little was pretty shaken up, but after her cart was loaded onto one of the ATVs and she took the passenger seat, she was greeted by a standing ovation by everyone at the bottom of the hill. … Checking in with the medics, she was deemed to just have a skinned knee.
Additionally, Muller continued, “adult division racer Shane Jackson also rolled his cart in almost the same spot, but got out of the cart and stood up with a hands-up victory jump in the air, covered head to toe in protective gear and not a scratch.”
Despite a decrease in participation, Muller voiced optimism for next year’s races. He attributed this year’s smaller turnout to the notion that people are busier with other obligations amid lighter COVID-19 regulations. Muller was further encouraged by children coming up to him Sunday to say they were going to enter a go-kart in 2023.
In addition to having more racers, Muller said he is hopeful that next year’s event will have more community volunteers to help out. Should the proper pieces fall into place, not only will the Montague race flourish, but so will Greenfield’s race, Muller expressed.
“I think it’s all going to come back,” Muller said. “I think Greenfield’s going to have a successful race next year, knocking on wood.”
Reach Julian Mendoza
at 413-772-0261, ext. 261 or jmendoza@recorder.com.