The Andersen family's turtles are cold-blooded competitors.
Speedy, a red-nosed slider, won the first heat by a red nose yesterday at the 66th annual Chesapeake Turtle Derby in Patterson Park. The next race went to the Bel Air family's other slider, Claude.
"One of them always wins," Charlie Andersen said of the turtles. "It's almost embarrassing. We've got probably 10 trophies from turtle races at our house." Andersen, who attended the race with his wife, son and daughter, said the family has been competing in turtle derbies since they adopted Claude in 1998.
The Patterson Park derby featured three classes: box turtles, tortoises and an open class for all other competitors. A 70-pound African spur thigh tortoise named Darwin was the racer to beat in the heavyweight class.
"Darwin's a beast, a land behemoth," said Claudia Easton, of Highlandtown, who was following her grazing female spurred tortoise, Tippy Tina. "She loves clover, so she's thrilled to be here in the park," Easton said. She said Tippy Tina took first place at last year's race but only because Darwin wasn't entered.
Darwin's owner, Karen Harris, said the big turtle is a handful. "He never stops," she said, as she tried to coax him toward the racecourse.
The tortoise, which is native to northern Africa, can live more than 50 years and grow to weigh about 100 pounds. Harris estimates Darwin is about 18 years old. She keeps him in a pen in her yard in Linthicum, which she's had to upgrade as he's grown to keep him contained.
She lined the pen with concrete after Darwin chewed through his pen's chain-link fence. Another time, he broke the lock on the heated part of the pen during winter and got into the snow.
"He's a typical teenager," she said. "He gets a little belligerent and doesn't go where I want him to go."
Katrina Smith, the adoption coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic Turtle and Tortoise Society, said many people underestimate the amount of work it takes to care for the reptiles.
"These are not easy to care for," she said. "They have very specific needs for each species."
Smith was on hand at the derby to remind owners to provide their shelled pets shade from the hot summer sun. With many wild turtle populations declining, she also discourages people from capturing turtles or purchasing wild-caught turtles.
"If you go online and ask around," she said, "you can find a responsible breeder." She recommended the Web site PetFinder.com as a source of information on purchasing, adopting and caring for turtles.
Bob Wall, the derby organizer from the city's Department of Recreation and Parks, noted that Maryland's turtle lovers had something to celebrate this year. The General Assembly banned the commercial harvesting of diamondback terrapins, which can be used to make soup.
"We are the only state that, until recently, ate our state reptile," he told the crowd of about 50 people ringing the circular racecourse.
In most heats, four or five turtles were placed in a plastic tub in the center of a circle drawn on an artificial turf mat. The tub was then lifted, and the turtle that left the circle first won.
Darwin and his three tortoise competitors were too big for the tub, however, so their owners held them in the middle of the mat.
"Ready, set, go," Wall said, and the turtle jockeys ran out of the ring to cheer on their reptiles.
Tippy Tina came out fast on the scaly heels of a smaller tortoise named Scarlet. As Scarlet slowed, Tippy Tina, tried to walk over her, a strategy that cost her valuable time. "She's too much into that other turtle," said Easton, watching from the grassy sidelines.
Darwin took off in the opposite direction and won the tortoise class for the second time in three years. His reward was a trophy and a Cheerios and jelly sandwich, a rare treat for a tortoise that mostly eats greens. "It's his favorite thing," Harris said of the meal.
chris.emery@baltsun.com