After nearly two decades since the Alabama River Raft Race was last run, Al’s Towing added another trophy to their collection.

With their rebuilt raft from the 1970s on the water, Al’s Towing made it to the finish line with plenty of time to spare. As other teams with homemade rafts had the finish line in site, Al’s Towing was making loops, giving rides to children.

Robert Turner and his father Al once manned the raft in the 70s and 80s, but this year it was manned by Robert’s son, Andy, and three of his friends from college.

“They had a great time rebuilding the raft from the 70s. I live in Tuscaloosa, and all of these guys are friends of mine from college, and I just mentioned it to them,” Andy said.

“We all thought it was a great idea, so we all came to Selma to race.”

Mark’s Mart came in second in the homemade raft category, while Alston Keith, a Selma attorney, took home first place in the canoe category, and team Frog Log took home second place.

The race, which started above the train trestle bridge, officially got underway around 10:30 a.m. after 24 rafts and 12 canoes were launched.

“I think everybody had way more fun than they probably needed to,” said organizer Victor Shaw after the race. “Certainly the fire department was having fun. I swam over to their raft and had a hot dog.”

Teams didn’t hold back with their creativity. The Selma Fire Department had two rafts connected to each other and a grill on board. They served up hot dogs as they floated down the river.

Boy Scouts Troop 30 had a raft with a water cannon on it, blasting other teams with water as they went by.

Cars don’t normally float on top of the water, but George’s Paint and Body Shop had one on top of their raft.

While some teams were happy with their performance and raft design, others were taking notes for next year’s race.

“It was a whole lot of fun for the first three hours, and then it wasn’t so much fun anymore, so next year we’re going to completely rethink our design,” said Trey Hagemann for Holbrook Ready-Mix’s team.

“The whole ride we were talking about ideas to make it better and faster and all of that, but it held up pretty good for having about 10 hours of work and maybe 100 bucks tied up in the whole thing.”

Shaw said he expects next year’s race to be bigger and better.