Brechin cartie race organisers have promised the crowd-puller has not been permanently parked after talking the difficult decision to cancel the 2016 event.
The sight of soapbox racers was set to grace the town centre at the end of this month for community group Bravo Brechin’s Halloween in the City spectacular.
Alongside events including the annual Harley Davidson gathering and street water slide, the carties have been part of a major success story for the burgh since they first ran in 2012, regularly attracting a crowd of up to 3,000.
But a desperate plea for more racers to come forward this year has failed to generate sufficient entry numbers, forcing the group to make the cancellation call.
The Angus event was part of the Scottish Cartie Association championship calendar and attracted series regulars as well as first-time local participants, a mix which gave it special appeal and kept the big crowds entertained with thrills and spills on the kilometre-long street track from the top of the High Street to River Street.
Past years have seen bumper entries of around 30 gravity racers whizz down the course at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour.
A Bravo Brechin spokesman said: “This is not a decision that’s been taken lightly but there needs to be a certain number of carties to make the event a success and we were well short of that figure.
“If you don’t have at least 20 carties then the loop system we use for transporting them up to the top of the High Street won’t work well enough to keep the crowd entertained and the last thing we would want is for it not to be enjoyable for them.
“Organising the event is a major undertaking and we also realise that people have put a lot of work into building a cartie so we also feel sorry for them and would apologise that it’s not going ahead, but the difficult decision had to be made.
“We were of the view that we would have no event rather than an unsuccessful one.
“It’s a shame, but with the number of entries which had come forward by the deadline we knew it wouldn’t work well this year
“But it is definitely not the end of the road for the Brechin cartie race.
“It’s an event which people have really enjoyed since it was set up and we’ll have a break this year, come back with some fresh ideas and hope that we can get a load of entries for 2017.”
