The 13th derby went off in a dust of smoke as the carts whizzed down the 400-metre Park Street track to vie for line honours.

Sixty eight carts took on the course with more than 3500 people lining the road to watch the action.

There were even entries from as far away as Canberra, Sydney and Port Macquarie.

Derby assistant president Graham Murphy said the popular event celebrated its biggest year in terms of entries and spectators.

“It was a huge success, we had an incredible amount of people there and a huge number of high-quality entries,” he said.

“The weather was perfect and that made for a great day, all of our market holders were really pleased.

“It was the best one ever, without a doubt.

“There were 11 more carts entered this year and everyone was ecstatic about how the day went off.

“We trained up our own people for traffic control and I think it went off a lot better as we would have four races and then let the traffic through as opposed to three in past years.

“And it helped us save some money too.”

Maitland’s Aidan Foote won the under-16s title in his family’s stainless steel cart while Rathmines’ Jim Mandiadis was named senior champion after his steamlined machine won on Saturday afternoon.