Anyone with a cart was welcome to participate in the test run, starting from 6.30pm.
The derby itself would be held from 9.30am and it would run a lot quicker than last year, one of the organisers, Deane Preston, said.
Competition was "hotting up" among businesses, with challenges to last year's business category winner - Mr Preston's business Oamaru Exhaust and Radiator - which won with the Flying Banana.
There had been excellent support from businesses in sponsoring the event.
There would also be a challenge between Waitaki Boys' High School and St Kevin's College pupils, aboard ride-on lawn mowers.
The only requirements were for the cart to have wheels, no motor and good brakes.
"The weirder and wilder the better, really", Mr Preston's wife, Denise, said.
She was keen to see some "thinking outside the square" and would like to see some steampunked trolleys.
Describing it as "good old-fashioned fun", Mr Preston said it was all about getting parents involved with their children and "getting away from the PlayStation".
