The Fast And The Furryous

rickchand|published: 09/11/2006, 2:30pm EDT

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If you sat through more than one college football game on Saturday, then obviously you forgot that this past weekend was also the opening of hamster ball racing season. PETCO sponsored races at nearly all of its 800 stores in the U.S. on Saturday, which they called the Hamster Ball Derby. According to PETCO, contestants could "bring your own hamster or come in and race one of ours."

We cannot imagine the shame of winning the Hamster Ball Derby with a borrowed hamster.

Of course, we in the U.S. are rank amateurs compared to the British, who have been betting on racing hamsters for years. Over there, they laugh at our simple hamster balls ... UK hamsters drive tiny, elaborate dragsters, drive for racing teams, and have sponsors. Hamster racers are celebrities over there, including "Captain Hamster," "Rocket Rodent" (who races for Team Nuts), and the "Hamsterminator."

Then, sadly, you have the college students can't afford hamsters at all.

Hamtrack '06 [MTV Overdrive] Human Hamster Races. Yep. [Deadspin] Hamster Power [Eureka Times-Standard]