THOUSANDS of people lined the streets of York to watch amateur daredevils ride self-built racers down one of the city's steepest hills.

The Micklegate Run Soapbox Challenge saw dozens of spectacular soapboxes race from the top of a huge ramp in Micklegate, over a specially-designed water hazard, through a chicane, over cobbles and cross the finish line, with racers emitting smoke, water, sweets and even fire - though the flames were unintentional, and thankfully nobody was hurt.

While riders included Buzz Lightyear and Woody, Peppa Pig and her family, probably the biggest celebrity racer to take part was Boyzone's Shane Lynch, who rode for a team from York Barbican's Robin Hood in a brief break before returning to the studio with his bandmates for another recording session, despite a steering wheel mishap on their debut run.

Kevin Greenhill drove for The Peppa Pig Racers to support York's Home Start charity, which supports families and young children in difficulty in the city, and raised more than £1,500 ahead of the run.

He said: "Going down the Micklegate Run today was absolutely terrifying, but really great fun.

"The slope at the beginning is way higher than you might have thought, and this car is not built for handling - it's just a constant battle to stay in a straight line and I think we're quite likely to crash when we go again."

Shelagh Garside, one of the event organisers, said this year’s run was bigger than the inaugural race last year, and the feedback had been overwhelmingly positive.

She said: “Last year there were 16,000 on the street, brought £600,000 in revenue to the city and over £50,000 was raised for charity by the racers. We’re hoping there will be slightly more this year, and I feel there are more people here than last year, I would say maybe 20,000.”

Other soapbox racers on show included Soapy McSoap Box, designed and manufactured by a team of Year 10 engineering pupils from Millthorpe School - which raced to raise money for SASH, York Against Cancer and SCBU - returning racers Bishopton Flyers - a rebuilt and resigned version of previous year's racer - What A Shower - a bath time-themed design - Death On Wheels - a terrifying creation from York Maze's Hallowscream - and the Rainbow-Pooping Tortoise - built by Scarcroft Primary School and Your Bike Shed, which was the vehicle that caught fire at the finish line and raised money for York RSPCA animal home.

Dale French, driver for Cool Zappings - the City Zap team - rode in a miniature version of one of the company's buses, and said he was apprehensive ahead of their first run.

He said: "We're going for Help For Heroes today, we're just hoping not to die at the end."

Dale said he and the team were aiming to finish their first run in under 50 seconds, and they managed it with ease, clocking in at just under 44 seconds.

The races ran throughout the day, with food stalls bars and even fairground rides giving crowds chance to enjoy the rare Bank Holiday sunshine.

Jonathan Lewis and his son Sam, seven, from Heworth, were among the thousands of people lining Micklegate to watch the racers, and said they had hugely enjoyed the event.

He said: "We missed it last time, as we were away, but it is brilliant, we've loved it. Sam's favourite was the City Zap bus.

"It's brilliant, and it's great to see the city getting behind it to close main streets off for something that's purely for fun is brilliant. We'll be back next year for it."

This year’s fastest soapbox racers were the Digital Image team, in 29.99 seconds, followed by Wagu Wizard (32.23 seconds), and The Thirlby Job (32.47 seconds).