Great day out for Ovington’s own Wacky Racers

Action from the Wacky Scrappy Gravity cart race on Church Lane in Ovington. Picture: Matthew Usher. (Image: © ARCHANT NORFOLK 2016)

Ovington's Wacky Scrappy Gravity Race saw madcap inventors going hell for leather in homemade carts on Monday.

Competitors were under orders to create a cart from scrap material with no motive power – including pushing with hands or feet.

The white-knuckle event, organised by volunteers and underwritten by Ovington Parish Council, saw Marcus Patience, who lives just outside the village on Dereham Road, run out the winner for a combination of design and a speedy timed run.

The 16-year-old Wayland Academy pupil built the cart with his dad Dave, and family friend Martin Keegan-Hack, under the name Team Chaos and Mayhem.

He said: 'We did not go expecting to win, instead we went as a bit of laugh and to represent the village. The hardest part was actually at the finish line because the stopping distance was quite short and there were people at the bottom.

'I was conscious that I might crash into them, but fortunately I didn't.'

Mr Patience said he intended to take part in the race next year with a new design.

He was one of seven who took part in the event in front of about 200 people who turned up to watch.

Organiser and parish councillor Timothy Birt, 51, said: 'It was great fun. Lots of people turned up and we had a really good time, despite the weather and the wind.

'We'd told people not to take it too seriously and everyone certainly entered into that spirit.

'The fastest time we had around the track was 48 seconds, which was pretty quick. We sent each competitor down five times but by the end it was a bit of a free-for-all.

'I think we will do it again and we would hope to have a few more competitors too.'

Are you organising an event in your town or village? Email andrew.fitchett@archant.co.uk.