Gresford Billy Cart Derby a huge rolling success!!

volunteers helped with everything from car parking and traffic management to last minute printing and plenty of behind the scenes support.

Sponsors old and new flocked to be a part of this year’s racing. Huge thanks are owed to naming sponsors, The Beatty Hotel for their huge contribution and our gold sponsors Liddell-Glencore and Brimble. It was fantastic to see both businesses had carts in the races, that went toe to toe on several occasions. Their pit crews in support were also great sports!! Without the support of these businesses the event would not have been able to run so successfully.

Gresford came alive on Easter Saturday with an estimated crowd greater than 4000 people flocking trackside for all the thrills and spills of the Gresford Billy Cart Derby!

Racing ran from 9am-12noon without a hitch, from the juniors to the opens and feature races, there was constant cheers and a lot of fun commentary as well as Scott Lawrence and Paul Dooley revived their duties as race callers!

The event could not have run without

Of course there were many more sponsors of goods in kind and generous donations, and the committee and community is hugely grateful to all those that backed the event to return in 2023. From Kennards donating toilets to 365 fencing giving us a huge discount in barrier fencing and Premiair Hire providing the electronic message boards, the generosity was amazing. Dungog Council also offered a lot of help in the planning and approval stages to get the event back on track. One of the organisers, Alex Inneson said the committee were excited it was turned out to be a hugely successful event.

“Nothing beats the thrill of seeing the track lined with spectators, from the youngest children to the more seasoned race fans, all glued to the action rolling down the hill in front of them,” said Alex. “We so wanted to bring the family fun of the Billy cart derby back and the huge crowd really surprised us all!’

“Most importantly everyone had fun, we raised some much needed money towards the community beautification project and we proved the Hunter region really loves the Billy Cart Derby and wanted it to come back!”

There were some great results on the race track of course:

Overall & Junior winner– Rowan Grillmeier

Open winner– Phillip Foote

Best pit crew– Brimble Rail

Most unique cart– the coffin!

Away from the track visitors enjoyed all the fun of the markets, vintage car display, pony rides, cow pat lotto and gumboot toss! The crowd were kept fed and watered thanks to the Gresford Gorillas and Gresford Vacy Colts, the Tennis club and Gresford CWA.

Local businesses reported being really busy, and the Bowling Club and Beatty Hotel were both very popular with locals and visitors alike!! The mega charity auction raised over $4500 and the raffle and merchandise stalls were incredibly well supported. It takes a huge effort to set up and pack up this event, especially over

Easter so huge thanks to the Gresford Vacy Scorpion members who pitched in to help! Huge thanks to all the workers, especially former committee members like Lawrence Thorsell, Liz Jones and Graham Murphy who jumped back on board.. to our newest helpers like scrutineers Dave Whiteley and Sean Oliver, who did an almighty job in the pits!

While the final tally is still being counted it’s hoped the money raised will be enough to cover some more beautification works around town, and cover the costs of more murals or sculptures in our beautiful village. And of course we hope everyone is busy in their sheds building even faster carts for next year !!