Racing Wooden Go-Karts Downhill Is A Bucket List Race

As much as we love Formula 1, NASCAR, and Top Fuel racing, there’s something undeniably cool about taking things back to the grass roots level, to a simpler way of doing things. This race is quite literally the simplest of races that we can imagine, and it looks like it would be so much fun.

The race is called Carrilanas de Esteiro. I tried to translate that, only to find it seems to be a proper noun, so perhaps that is the location of the course on which the race takes place. This year marked the 30th running of the race, which features carts made of wood, including the axles and wheels, that rely on nothing but gravity to get them to the finish line.

The rules are very cut and dry. Other than some metal bolts and associated hardware, the “chassis” itself must be made completely of wood. There is a rule allowing a manually-pumped grease lubricant to be used to help ease the friction between the wheels and the axles, but other than that, there are no provisions for enhancing performance.

You can see, some of the karts have copilots, which would seemingly provide and advantage just from the extra weight pushing the kart down he hill, but the added heft also increases friction and, as you can see, it works out to be a pretty even race for all. The pilot with whom we’re riding does a great job of keeping his kart on the best line down the whole course, avoiding a couple of wrecked competitors along the way.

As you see the crowd start to build, our driver makes his way through the field of races to find himself racing for the lead as the race comes to a close in the edge of town. The onlookers cheer as the karts wheel their way though the last few turns before our racer crosses the finish line to take the win.

This looks like so much fun, we think somebody here in the states needs to host a similar event!

 

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