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Red Bull Soapbox Race

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Jul 15 2013

After a nine year absence, the Red Bull Soapbox Race made a spectacular return to London yesterday in an adrenaline-fuelled, madcap blaze of glory. Held at Alexandra Palace with about 20,000 spectators.

70 teams competed for the ultimate accolade of the UK’s best soapboxers creators and drivers of vehicles powered by nothing but gravity. Adrenaline junkies with nerves of steel zoomed down a 420m course at speeds of up to 52 kilometres per hour, attempting to avoid falling foul of some hazardous obstacles, most notable, the last jump ‘Big Air’ designed to give crowd-pleasing crashes galore.

Infiniti Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner and street trials pro-rider Danny MacAskill were amongst the judges looking out for creativity and showmanship as well as speed and the entrants did not disappoint.

Team ‘Spit-Phya’ from Newcastle, made up of motorbike engineers stormed to victory with their soapbox, (as pictured on the preview photo) which was inspired by Great British land speed record vehicles and racers, Donald Campbell and John Cobb. As well as the honour of taking the top spot, the winners will be given a once-in-a-lifetime tour of the Inifiniti Red Bull Racing Factory and the chance to show off their driving skills on a high-performance racing track.

Soapboxes that caught really caught my eye, as well as leaving something in it (thanks), included a VW camper van, a scotch egg, a Beatles-inspired yellow submarine and a rugby scrum, ‘Does My Scrum Look Big in This’.

Fantastic!

 

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About this blog

The vast majority of posts in this blog are about quirky & eccentric competitions & festivals. I started it in 2006 in France with a competition I’ll never forget. Where contestants battle it out to become the World Champion Pig Squeeler, or ‘Cri du Cochon’. I had little knowledge back then of quite how far my pursuit of these kind of events would lead me. I’ve travelled all over Britain (and occasionally further afield) to capture our curiosities and quirks. There’s nothing uniquely eccentric about the British, you’ll find people all over the world up to all sorts of weird and wonderful activities, but we do have a remarkable capacity to embrace the madness. ‘A Brit Different’ is the book that was born from it, my labour of love! So what next? There’s always something interesting going on, so watch this space, only time will tell!

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