Wilmington has a new king of hospital bed racing. Kind of.

Evil Empire, led by Lou Cimaglia, Jr., who was a domainant racer several years ago as a member of Local Heroes, surprised its fellow competitors by showing up to Monday's race and running away with the coveted championship and all of the bragging rights that go along with it.

The squad needed to win back-to-back races to dethrone defending champion Arlene Ave. Evil Empire did just that, winning each competition easily to snag the title that is earned every Fourth of July.

Among the teams left in the dust were Wilmington Patch, Women of Wilmington and Wilmington Moms Club, along with the current Local Heroes team which included Lou's brother, Nick Cimaglia.

For those unfamiliar with the annual hospital bed races, the concept is simple. Four runners on each team push a hospital bed to one end of the course where a fifth participant hops off the bed, fills a bed pan and returns to their seat.

Then, the runners push the bed back to the starting line with their rider back on board, and each team must complete the course with at least six ounces of "specimen," known to most as yellow sports drink.

Teams are slowly eliminated after two losses until just a pair of teams remain, and they race to decide who ends the evening on top.

"We had to do a job. That's why we came out of retirement and we got it done," said Cimaglia. "We wanted to surprise the competition, and that's just what we did. We blew them away."