Toy Jeeps, rubber ducks race at festival
WORTH TWP — A cadre of costumed characters lined up at Cooper’s Lake Campground on Saturday, June 10, 2023, for the Barbee Jeep Race at the Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival.
On the hill above them, their rides: an assortment of children’s electric Jeeps, decorated with everything from dinosaurs to candy.
“I was here last year as Batman, and now Batman has returned, because you can’t spell Bantam without Batman,” one of the participants, dressed as — you guessed it — Batman, told the crowd.
Before the starting race, organizer Joyce Appel — representing the Butler Outdoor Club — said the participants would take part in a costume contest.
“That was completely my idea,” said Appel, dressed in a Barbie costume of her own.
Participants also included the Joker, another Barbie, Captain Morgan, Freedom and ‘Merica, an inflatable eagle and sumo wrestler, Cousin Eddy, Ricky Bobby, Cooter Davenport, a “drunk” princess and two characters from the movie “Super Troopers.”
Voted for by crowd applause, the princess won.
From there, the racers climbed the hill to prepare — but not to start their engines, according to Appel.
“No motors,” she said. “No motors allowed.”
Instead, participants let gravity do the racing for them.
“They’re allowed to have somebody push,” Appel said, “and they’re allowed to have a ‘mechanic,’ a pit crew.”
She said the Barbee Jeep Race has been held for the last five years at the festival, including the ceremonial Blessing of the Jeeps after the costume contest.
“I would like to bless the Jeeps, the festival and our drivers for this Barbee Jeep Race,” Appel told the crowd. “Just keep in mind, I want everybody to have a good time, enjoy the race, be safe.”
With that, the racers were off, barreling down the steep campground hill in an evening of harrowing victories, even more harrowing crashes and laughter.
“It took a while, I think, for it to catch on that this was going on, but once it did — and you see how funny it is — we get more and more people every year,” Appel said.
After a series of races — including Batman’s elimination after his teammate, the Joker, cheated — the final participants took the starting line.
Winners of the Barbee Jeep Race would take home $300 for first place, $200 for second and $100 for third.
The losers then participated in a final race for a $50 prize.
The Super Troopers took first place at the festival. Pittsburgh native Greg Langer, the team’s driver, said it was his first year participating.
“We watched it last year, and we were like, ‘we have to do it,’” he said.
Langer and his teammate, Cory Nolton, also won second place in the costume contest.
“I loved it,” Langer said. “Definitely coming back next year.”
Appel, dressed in a duck onesie, also organized the festival’s Duck Dash — a waterslide race of nearly 1,500 rubber ducks.
“We found out that the Jeep people had this tradition of taking rubber ducks and putting them on a Jeep if they like the Jeep,” Appel said. “So that’s called ‘ducking’ a Jeep ... and I said, ‘We should have a duck race.’”
The dash, like the Barbee Jeep Race, supports both the festival and the Butler Outdoor Club.
“It’s $5 a duck; they get to keep their duck and we have a duplicate — that’s what you saw in the race,” Appel said. “They’re allowed to buy as many as they want.”
Appel said this was the third year for the Duck Dash, offering $300 for first place, $200 for second and $100 for third.
“The ducks came down here, all of them, with water; then we picked,” she said. “I had two other volunteers. I grabbed the first duck, that was first place; my other volunteer grabbed the second, that was second; then my third volunteer grabbed the third, and that was third place.”
After the three winners were chosen, a second race took place sponsored by BFGoodrich tires.
“The second race was for their benefit,” Appel said. “And they gave away one prize: tires valued at $2,500.”
Saturday’s race was the biggest in the festival’s history, she said, selling more ducks, faster, than ever before.
“It really took off,” Appel said. “This is the third year, and every year more and more people want to buy.”
