Has been postponed for 2004
and will be held in May, 2005

Mostyn Street, Castlemaine, Victoria.

Organised by Castlemaine Blue Light Inc. in conjunction with local CFA, SES, Service Groups, the Shire of Mount Alexander and Castlemaine Police. This event will be held in Mostyn Street, Castlemaine from the Burke and Wills Monument, down a steep section of hill over a course of approximately 250 metres. Racing starts at 12 midday and runs through till around 4 p.m. after which a trophy presentation is held. All carts should arrive by 11 a.m. for scrutineering, weighing and the driver's briefing. One cart at a time races against the stopwatch and the top speed is also measured by police radar. There are three age classes, which all have different starting points on the hill. Each entrant usually gets two runs (time permitting)

The fastest open carts hit 58 km/h off the full hill (8 km/h over the speed limit!) so brakes are an absolute necessity. There are some safety rules but the carts construction is left to your imagination and photos of previous events will show some of the wild and whacky entries. (Sorry but there are no photos from the 2002 event) We must warn that traditional wooden billy carts with rope steering are NOT allowed as they rarely pass basic safety tests (particularly safe braking and steering). Due to Public Liability requirements the Maximum weight of the cart (without driver) is 100 kg. We may allow (at the discretion of the scrutineers) carts slightly overweight provided they are fitted with more solid wheels, not bicycle or pram wheels. Go Karts (with engines removed ) or Go Kart frames are permitted and are ideal for juniors or novices as they generally have good steering and brakes, are easy to handle and can often be purchased cheaply. They are not particularly competitive but still lots of fun.

The day is a FREE Family fun day and the whole family (including mum and dad) can participate and challenge the hill or just come along and spectate.  Food and drinks are available on the day and any monies raised go to local clubs. There are NO entry fees for participants or spectators. Entries come from all over Victoria and occasionally interstate and there are numerous trophies presented for not only the fastest but also best looking, most awesome etc, so speed is not everything! Many of our local businesses and all our local Emergency Services have built carts for this event and carts vary from 'low buck' home builts like ours, to 'high tech' engineering marvels from some of Australia's best Hot Rod engineering shops. We have shown a photo of our 'low buck' cart below to give you some ideas. By the way the good home built carts are very competitive and have won the event on several occasions. All of the fastest carts now use bicycle wheels.

Our cart was built from old car and bicycle parts sourced from the local tip and our own garage. It uses two old bicycle frames, 20" bicycle wheels, rack & pinion steering, bicycle forks (which swivel on old Holden alternator brackets), a Datsun seat and some steel offcuts to put it all together. Braking is with bicycle calipers on the front and rear wheels operated from the steering column. Total cost was less than $100 (mostly for new tyres and tubes) and we won the first event with this cart. Originally painted in CFA colours it is now painted in Police colours. The cart has run every year and has changed only slightly over the past 7 years. We ran it in the Red Bull Billy Cart Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 17th, 2002, along with several other Castlemaine entries

Last years fastest cart was Lionel West's shown below right which uses a steel frame with racing bicycle wheels and brakes. Rod Hadfield's three wheeler (the wheels shown are painted on!) is shown below left with fully enclosed body (from an old speedway car) and magnificent signwriting and graphics. Built in the workshops of Castlemaine Rod Shop and CRS Engineering the cart uses racing bicycle wheels on specially made machined hubs.

The 2004 event due to be held on Sunday 23rd May has een postponed for this year. We will be holding the event in May 2005. For any further enquiries call Dave Petrusma on 0417 135 240 or email dave@mtalexander.net.

ENTRY  HISTORY  PICTURES 2000  PICTURES 2001  RESULTS 2001  RESULTS 2002