MARCH 06–MARCH 16, 2026
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‘Big Banana Car’ makes weekend pit stop in Buellton Michigan resident Steve Braithwaite stopped in Santa Ynez Valley as part of nationwide tour with fruit-shaped vehicle By Mike Chaldu michael@santaynezvalleystar.com
“S
omewhere in the world a huge banana is speeding down a lonesome highway,” is the message on the home page of a website at bigbananacar.com. On the weekend of Feb. 21-22, that “somewhere” was Buellton. For those who saw the long yellow vehicle traveling around Buellton streets, the banana car is the creation of one Steve Braithwaite, a 65-yearold Manitou Beach, Michigan, resident originally from Oxford, England. “I’m a hot rodder, but I stopped going to hot rod shows,” said Braithwaite, his British accent still intact despite being in the U.S. for 40 years. “However, I was watching the British version of ‘Top Gear’ and they had the world’s fastest garden shed, and then not too long after, a drivable street-legal couch. So I started to think ‘what can
I got the idea.” Braithwaite was able to acquire a 1993 F-150 pickup that eventually become the Big Banana Car. “I built the Big Banana Car over a two-plus-year period starting in 2008 and, with the help of a close group of friends, finished the car in the spring of 2011,” he said. The result is a vehicle that fits its name: Long, yellow, and a paint job that depicts a real banana, including touches of green that mimic the fruit’s aging process. The driver’s seat is at the very front, with three passenger seats in single file behind it, and the banana “stem” curving upwards in the back. Braithwaite left his home back in November 2025 and has been making stops at various cities, offering free rides in his unique set of wheels to anyone who asks. “I’ve been driving around the country and people ask why I do this,” he said. “Once I rode a motorcyle across India, which is a silly thing, but it Michigan resident Steve Braithwaite poses with his “Big Banana Car,” tranformed from a 1993 Ford F-150 pickup. Braithwaite has been driving inspired me to do an ‘RTW,’ which the car across the country and stopped off in Buellton the weekend of Feb. 21-22. Photo by Mike Chaldu/SYVS means ‘round the world, and do it in I build that’s ridiculous?’” Inspiration a bowl of fruit, and the long banana so caught up in that, I didn’t realize the the banana car. suddenly struck while waiting in line was in there and I picked it up and people in front of me already left and “It’s a two-part plan. First, build the at a gas-station mini-mart. started envisioning how it would look the rest were waiting for me to go up car, and I’ve done that, and go around “I was in line at checkout and saw on wheels,” Braithwaite recalled. “I got and pay for my stuff. But that’s when CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
Pirates girls fall just short in CIF section final Santa Ynez High runners-up for second straight season after narrow loss to Rosamond in Division V nail-biter By Mike Chaldu michael@santaynezvalleystar.com
Sports | Pg. 6 Trio of captains hopes to elevate Pirate baseball in 2026
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ne would be hard-pressed to find a more evenly matched CIF championship game than the one that occurred the morning of Saturday, Feb. 28, at Selland Arena in Fresno. The CIF Central Section Division V girls basketball final saw the Santa Ynez Pirates, seeded No. 5, go up against the No. 3 seed Rosamond Roadrunners. SYHS was returning to a section title game after being runners-up last year, while Rosamond was looking to win its third straight section championship. Kicking off a stretch of six title games in Fresno on the day, the two teams battled in a contest that was extremely close for the entire 48 minutes. The end of the first period: tied. Halftime: tied. End of the third period: Santa Ynez up by one. Then with less than a minute left in the game, the Pirates found themselves with the ball down by two. Two 3-point attempts missed, and then with
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News Briefs . . . . . . . . . Pg. 2 • Beautification Award winners for 2025 awarded by the Rotary Club of Solvang News . . . . . . . . . . . . Pg. 3 • Solvang City Council moves forward on amended ordinance limiting short-term rentals
Santa Ynez High’s Rylan Agin dribbles against Rosamond in the teams’ CIF Central Section Division V final on Feb. 28 in Fresno. Agin led her team with 15 points in the Pirates’ 43-41 loss. Photo by Cheyenne Agin
1.5 seconds left, SYHS couldn’t get the shot off an inbounds pass, and Rosamond earned that third straight title with a 43-41 victory. Pirates head coach Jennifer Rasmussen commented on the close back and forth of the game after arriving back from Fresno on Saturday evening. “It was such a difficult game, we had plans to pressure them on defense, but really didn’t do that,” she said. “We had
swings there where we could have taken control, but they battled back, and we battled back, just back and forth like that all game.” The Roadrunners got off to a quick start in the first period, scoring the first six points before senior forward Rylan Agin hit a three-pointer to get the Pirates on the board, and Elena Sleiman and Jazmine Juarez scored baskets to put SYHS up 7-6.
From there it was nip-and-tuck as the score was deadlocked six times, and neither team held a lead of more than six points at any time of the game. After the teams came out of halftime tied at 20, Agin again hit a 3-pointer for the first points of the second half and the Pirates were able to lead 30-29 at the end of the third. SYHS was able to build a 34-31 lead with 6:40 left in CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
News . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pg. 3 • Buellton City Council approves license for farmers market News . . . . . . . . . . . . Pg. 4 • Sen. Schiff visits Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital, touts restoration of critical access status Arts & Nonprofits . . . . . Pg. 4 • Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara honors Santa Ynez High student artists Calendar . . . . . . . . . . Pg. 8 • Government meetings and events