Red Bull Soapbox Race

A participant driving through the course for the Red Bull Soapbox Race held in Alexandra Palace, London in 2017

The Red Bull Soapbox Race is a soapbox race organised at least once a year by Red Bull. During its final phase, amateur pilots challenge one another by presenting hand-made, motor-less vehicles, judged for their aesthetics, their speed and their road-holding. ^{[1] [2]}

Originality and extravagance play an even greater role in the competition, as each team is also rated for their showmanship and the soapboxes are often inspired by folklore, pop culture, motorsport or everyday-life themes in their creation. Some notable examples include Pokémon-based karts and playful reproductions of the Popemobile or Mr. Bean's Mini.

First held in 2000, over a hundred races have been held in multiple countries around the world ever since, usually attracting thousands of spectators and putting the primary focus on the most creative and entertaining side of the competition. ^[1]

History

The inaugural event was held in Brussels, Belgium on April 30, 2000. ^[3] Races have since been held all across the globe, covering every single continent at least once, excluding Antarctica. ^[3] The first race out of Europe took place on March 30, 2003, when the sixth edition ever was organized in Auckland, New Zealand: this was also the first time the competition was held in Oceania. Auckland would later host the soapbox race thrice more, in 2005, 2013 and 2015.

In 2004, the event was organized in four different locations throughout the year, including Durban, South Africa. ^[4] The same location was chosen one year later, and the country would host the competition twice more, in 2006 (in Johannesburg) and 2010 (in Soweto): South Africa still represents the only African nation to have held the soapbox race.

The competition first arrived in the United States in 2006, when a new edition was held in St. Louis, Missouri: ever since, a total number of seventeen races have taken place throughout the country. ^[5]

In 2007, the race spread to the Caribbean for the first time, as Jamaica hosted a new edition. Instead, South America first got to know the event better the following year, when two different editions were held in Brazil: the first one took place in Fortaleza on June 8, while the second one was organized in Porto Alegre on September 21.

The circle was completed between 2012 and 2013, with three subsequent editions being organized in the same number of Asian countries: China (although the event was hosted in Hong Kong), India and Oman. ^{[6] [7] [8]}

Currently, 2017 has featured the largest amount of races, with eleven different races taking place between Europe, North America and Asia throughout the year.

2020 actually featured just one edition of the race, held in Santiago (the third time overall, as the Chilean capital city had already hosted the event in 2011 and 2016) on March 14. ^[9] The second one was set to be held in Florence, Italy on June 7, ^[2] but was later cancelled due to the emergency measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. Still, the seventy selected projects were rated and awarded by the deputed jury in October of the same year. ^{[10] [11]}

Rules

A participant to the race held in Alexandra Palace, London (2017) driving through the course on a Pokémon-inspired soapbox: creativity plays a huge role in the competition, as the style of each vehicle is inspired by folklore, pop culture or everyday-life themes.

The vehicles must have steering and braking capability. ^{[3] [12]} Teams are judged on both the time taken to complete the course, as well as creativity of their design and the showmanship of a performance at the start of the race, meaning the team with the fastest time is not necessarily the winner. ^[13]

Tracks

In the 2013 London race, one team reached a speed of over 50 kilometers per hour as they completed the 430 metre course in 33 seconds. ^[13] The Cork 2004 course down St. Patrick's Hill was the steepest ever used at the time. ^[14]

Notable participants

In 2008, a team from Queen's University Belfast set the world speed record for soapbox racers at Stormont, Northern Ireland, at 72 km/h (45 mph), before entering the vehicle, Equmes 1, into the Red Bull race at Stormont later in the week. ^{[15] [16]}

On May 16, 2015, the Dutch racing driver Max Verstappen, a Formula One driver for the Red Bull racing team himself, opened the race in Valkenburg, Netherlands, driving a soapbox that resembled his own STR10 racing car. ^[17]

On 7 July 2019, YouTubers Zac Alsop and Jamie Rawsthorne of "The Zac and Jay Show" entered the London race. In a Monopoly-themed run, they threw around £1,000 into the crowd. ^[18]

In September 2024, YouTuber TomSka and a team from Surfshark VPN entered the race in Kaunas, Lithuania as part of an advertising campaign. The cart was themed around a toilet and had TomSka piloting the cart 'naked', though in reality he was wearing skin-coloured underwear, with the tagline "Why are you sharing your data, but not this?". ^[19] TomSka also revealed that he had planned to film an episode for his series "TryHards" at the race alongside collaborators Elliot Gough and Eddie Bowley but that they had failed to secure places in time. ^[20]

Races

No.	Date	Course length	Location	City	Country/Region	Entrants	Winning Team	Spectators	Reference
1	30 April 2000			Brussels	Belgium
2	2 September 2001		Roundhay Park	Leeds	United Kingdom	50	The Garage		[21]
3	2 September 2001	800 metres	Kurpark Oberlaa	Vienna	Austria
4	17 March 2002			Melbourne	Australia
5	7 July 2002	750 metres		Bern	Switzerland	62	Kuhl Runnings
5	8 September 2002			Bochum	Germany
6	30 March 2003	700 metres	Auckland Domain	Auckland	New Zealand	80	Rubber Duck Racing	44,000
7	2004				Netherlands
8	20 June 2004	250 metres	St Patrick's Hill	Cork	Ireland	63	Crazy Babies		[14]
9	8 August 2004	650 metres	Knebworth Park	Stevenage	United Kingdom	84	Team Volvet Underground
10	17 October 2004	445 metres	Trematon Drive	Durban	South Africa	67	Team Flower Power		[4]
	28 November 2004	500+ metres	Lansdowne Street	Melbourne	Australia	94	BBQ boys from Monbulk
	2005		La Rue d'Ouchy	Lausanne	Switzerland
	2005	445 metres	Trematon Drive	Durban	South Africa	70+
	13 February 2005	700 metres	Auckland Domain	Auckland	New Zealand	80	Wanganui Motors Transformers
	18 September 2005		Schloss Solitude	Stuttgart	Germany
	27 August 2006		Jan Smuts Avenue	Johannesburg	South Africa	54			[22]
	24 September 2006	800 metres	Kurpark Oberlaa	Vienna	Austria
	29 October 2006		Forest Park	St. Louis, Missouri	United States	42	Fast Food
	11 August 2007				Jamaica	43	The Pier One Team
	30 September 2007	0.5 miles (800 m)	Fremont Avenue to North 36th Street	Seattle, Washington	United States		The A-Team		[23]
	14 October 2007	0.25 miles (400 m)	College Hill	Providence, Rhode Island	United States	61	The Good, The Bad and The Nerdy (The Numerator 2.0)		[24]
	11 May 2008			Brussels	Belgium
	25 May 2008		Stormont	Belfast	United Kingdom	47	Ruddell Metals		[25]
	8 June 2008		Praia do Futuro	Fortaleza, Ceará	Brazil	39	Elvis não morreu, bebeu! (Elvis did not die, drank!)
	6 September 2008	550 metres		Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	United States		Deuces Wild
	7 September 2008		West 4th Avenue	Vancouver, British Columbia	Canada				[26]
	21 September 2008	400 metres	Corrida em Porto Alegre	Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul	Brazil	29	Gangster's Team Gravity Race
	4 October 2008		Eden Park	Cincinnati, Ohio	United States
	25 October 2008			Denver, Colorado	United States		Team Save Ferris
29	24 May 2009		Maçka	Istanbul	Turkey	60	FIRE(Ateş)
	29 August 2009		10th Street, Piedmont Park	Atlanta, Georgia	United States		Yongsa Dragon Breath
	6 September 2009			Medellín	Colombia
	26 September 2009		Grand Ave. and 5th Street	Los Angeles, California	United States		Ironheade	105000
	18 October 2009		Sacher Park	Jerusalem	Israel
	24 September 2010		Diepkloof Xtreme Park	Soweto	South Africa	50+	Team Zooma		[22]
	6 November 2010		Fundidora Park	Monterrey	Mexico
	23 April 2011		Estrada da Rainha	Balneário Camboriú, Santa Catarina	Brazil
	23 May 2011			Los Angeles, California	United States	38	The Lakers Fanwagon	115000	[27]
	12 June 2011			Zagreb	Croatia
	3 July 2011			Stockholm	Sweden
	18 July 2011	450 meters	Heroiv Krut Alley	Kyiv	Ukraine	43
	25 September 2011		Parque Nacional de Bogotá	Bogotá	Colombia	60
	2 October 2011		Praça do Papa	Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais	Brazil		Red Bule Uai Sô
	21 November 2011			Santiago	Chile	68
	5 May 2012	380 metres		Brussels	Belgium	85	Toga Max 2
	10 June 2012		10th Street, Piedmont Park	Atlanta, Georgia	United States	36	SweetWater		[28]
	1 July 2012	500 meters	Krylatskoye Cycling Circuit	Moscow	Russia	56
	16 September 2012		Austin Ranch	Dallas, Texas	United States	40	Oregon Trail		[29]
	23 September 2012			Warsaw	Poland	80
	15 October 2012		To Shek Street, Ma On Shan	Hong Kong	China	42			[6]
	2 December 2012			Mumbai	India	50			[7]
	19 April 2013			Muscat	Oman		No Flying Yoke		[8]
	14 July 2013	500 metres	Halde Hoheward	Herten	Germany	68	Zeitrider	55,000
	14 July 2013	420 meters	Alexandra Palace	London	United Kingdom	70	SpitPhya		[3] [13]
	25 August 2013		Nygårdsparken	Bergen	Norway
	29 September 2013		Taipei National University of the Arts	Taipei	Taiwan				[30]
	11 November 2013			Buenos Aires	Argentina
	13 November 2013	700 metres	Auckland Domain	Auckland	New Zealand		Team Zoom Car Wash
	6 April 2014	400 metres	La Heradura	Lima	Peru	52	Rapidos Y Sabrosos	25,000
	15 June 2014		Parc de Saint-Cloud	Paris	France	50	Rugbyman en Folie	38,000
	24 August 2014		Yesler Way	Seattle, Washington	United States	36	Nickerson Street Saloon Rainier Rocket		[31]
	14 September 2014		Amfiteatrul Mihai Eminescu	Bucharest	Romania	51	Vegetarian Cannibals
	28 September 2014		National Palace of Culture	Sofia	Bulgaria
	28 September 2014	500 metres	IFSC Headquarters	Turin	Italy	61	Let There Be Rock	40,000
	16 May 2015	350 metres	Cauberg Hill	Valkenburg	Netherlands	60	Der Mergelvreters		[17] [32]
	12 July 2015	420 metres	Alexandra Palace	London	United Kingdom	65	Absolute Radio Breakfast Club		[33]
99	29 August 2015	1,500 feet (460 m)	Eden Park	Cincinnati, Ohio	United States	41	Peep My Ride		[34]
100	4 September 2015			Amman	Jordan
101	6 September 2015	300 metres	Beaver Hall Hill	Montreal, Quebec	Canada	45	The Docs (Back to the Future)	25,000	[35]
102	20 September 2015	400 metres		Goiânia, Goiás	Brazil
103	24 October 2015	1,200 feet (370 m)	North Ave, Old Fourth Ward	Atlanta, Georgia	United States		The Grease Monkeys		[36]
	31 October 2015		Montjuïc	Barcelona	Spain	70	TMC Men in Blue
	15 November 2015		Centennial Parklands	Sydney	Australia
	22 November 2015	700 metres	Auckland Domain	Auckland	New Zealand		Red Stag Hunters
	5 June 2016		St Patrick's Hill	Cork	Ireland	60+	Jumbo Breakfast Roll		[37]
	3 September 2016		Colina Park	Cluj-Napoca	Romania	41			[38]
	11 September 2016		Atizapán	Mexico City	Mexico		Chile en Papas de Calabaza
	9 October 2016			Baku	Azerbaijan
	13 November 2016		Buddh International Circuit	New Delhi	India				[39]
	13 November 2016		Hiranandani Gardens in Powai	Mumbai	India	50	The Other Guys
	27 November 2016		Calle Talinay, La Reina	Santiago	Chile		Calcetin Con Rombosman		[40]
	9 July 2017	420 metres	Alexandra Palace	London	United Kingdom		Brooklands Special
	19 August 2017		Tähtitorninvuori	Helsinki	Finland		Saippua Loota Kustoms
	19 August 2017	350 metres	Cauberg Hill	Valkenburg	Netherlands	70	Return of the Legend
	20 August 2017		The Botanical Garden	Aarhus	Denmark
	20 August 2017		Elysian Park	Los Angeles, California	United States	61	OJ & the White Bronco
	10 September 2017	410 metres	Mont-de-l’Enclus	Kluisbergen	Belgium	70	Pattyn Packing Lines
	10 September 2017		La Rue d'Ouchy	Lausanne	Switzerland	70	The Fly
	24 September 2017		Palace of the Republic	Almaty	Kazakhstan
	1 October 2017		National Taiwan Sport University, Taoyuan	Taipei	Taiwan
	1 October 2017		Parc de Saint-Cloud	Paris	France	51	Drum Team
	23 October 2017		Yomiuriland Amusement Park	Tokyo	Japan
	24 June 2018	500 metres	Villa Borghese	Rome	Italy				[1]
	8 September 2018	1,500 feet (460 m)	Eden Park	Cincinnati, Ohio	United States		The Sea Cowboys (aka the Swamp Monkeys)
	9 September 2018		Parque Eduardo Sétimo	Lisbon	Portugal		The Mean Machine
	7 July 2019	420 metres	Alexandra Palace	London	United Kingdom	59	Gas Gas Gas	20,000
	15 September 2019			Kaunas	Lithuania	60	Klumpė
	28 September 2019		The Colony Ranch	The Colony, Texas	United States		Skeeter Done, (aka the Swamp Monkeys)
	6 October 2019		Yomiuriland	Kawasaki, Kanagawa	Japan		Banana Cabaret		[41]
	14 March 2020		Zona de Pits, Parque Metropolitano	Santiago	Chile	30	Los Pícaros del Bío Bío		[9] [42]
	7 June 2020 [43]	500 metres [12]	Piazzale Michelangelo	Florence	Italy	70
	18 June 2022		Iowa State Capitol	Des Moines	United States			25,000	[44]
	26 June 2022		Porta del Paese	Città di San Marino	San Marino	40	Car-ota Gag Garage
	3 July 2022		Alexandra Palace	London	United Kingdom	67	Go Go Gadget Soapbox		[45]
	3 December 2022	500+ metres	Lansdowne Street	Melbourne	Australia			30,000
	27 August 2023		Aargauerstalden	Bern	Switzerland	44	Hinteer Dem Lenkrad	28,000	[46]
	8 September 2023	350 metres	Abdoun Corridor	Amman	Jordan	39	Team Shalati	10,000+	[47]
	22 October 2023			Tbilisi	Georgia		Tech Crush
	3 March 2024	250 metres	Ramanaidu Studios	Hyderabad	India	28	Kranken Wagen		[48]
	22 June 2024		Queen Elizabeth Park Road	Edmonton	Canada	58	Cock-A-Doodle Crew	30,000	[49]
	22 June 2024	420 metres	Alexandra Palace	London	United Kingdom	59	The Hurry Houdinis		[50]

Prizes

The winners of events receive a trophy and various special prizes, such as a trip to the Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix to meet Carlos Sainz (Hong Kong 2012 ^[6] ), a tour of the Red Bull Racing Factory, including a high performance track day (London 2013 ^[3] ). In the 2007 Providence race, the three highest scoring teams received trips. ^[24] A People's Choice Award is given to the audience's favorite team. ^[24] Prize money is also awarded for the best charity entrant - 5,000 Euros for the 2004 Cork race. ^[14]

Reception

In 2007, the New York Times contrasted the creative nature of the Red Bull series adult based teams, with the traditional American view of youth based Soap Box Derby, where design options were limited. ^[5] Reviewing the 2008 Belfast race, the News Letter related that it was "difficult to describe the quality of the lunacy on display" ^[25] Reviewing the 2011 Los Angeles event, the Huffington Post described it as a piece of rare wholesome fun so rare in modern-day big cities, and through the various designs and teams it showed creativity and the human spirit, with flashes of great ingenuity and engineering, and capturing the zeitgeist. ^[27] Previewing the 2015 London event, the Evening Standard described the series as a global phenomenon. ^[13] Reviewing the 2015 Montreal event, the Montreal Gazette said the races were not for the faint hearted, even for spectators. ^[35]

References

1. "Red Bull Soapbox Race, approda su Blaze la corsa più stravagante del mondo". Wired (in Italian). January 15, 2018. Retrieved April 5, 2021.
2. "La corsa di "auto" più pazza del mondo arriva a Firenze". FirenzeToday (in Italian). Retrieved April 5, 2021.
3. Thomas, Emily (July 15, 2013). "PHOTOS: Soapbox Races Make An EPIC Comeback". The Huffington Post . Retrieved August 10, 2016.
4. "No horse but Flower Power at box cart race". www.iol.co.za. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
5. Hughes, C. J. (October 21, 2007). "Soapbox Derby - Red Bull". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved August 10, 2016.
6. Soapbox racing takes off in Hong Kong, archived from the original on October 16, 2012, retrieved August 10, 2016
7. "India's first Red Bull Soapbox Race wows crowds - ZigWheels". ZigWheels.com. Retrieved April 5, 2021.
8. "Omanis lap up first Soapbox Race". gulfnews.com. September 15, 2018. Retrieved April 5, 2021.
9. "Red Bull Soapbox Race 2020: Santiago de Chile". www.redbull.com. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
10. "Red Bull Soap Box Race 2020" (PDF). September 22, 2020. Retrieved April 5, 2021.
11. "Red Bull Soapbox Race 2020". www.redbull.com. Retrieved April 5, 2021.
12. "Red Bull Soapbox Race 2020 - Rules" (PDF). Retrieved April 5, 2021.
13. "Tally ho! Red Bull Soapbox Race 2015 headed for Alexandra Palace". May 12, 2015. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
14. "Soapbox drivers didn't need any stimulants to fly without wings". The Irish Times . Retrieved August 10, 2016.
15. "SOAP BOX DERBY. - Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
16. "Students break soapbox record". BBC. May 23, 2008. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
17. "Formula 1 gossip: Button, Maldonado, Grosjean, Hakkinen". BBC Sport. May 11, 2015. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
18. Alsop, Zac (August 3, 2019). "We Crashed badly in the Redbull Soapbox London". YouTube. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
19. @surfshark (September 18, 2024). "We made TomSka an offer he couldn't refuse" . Retrieved January 18, 2025– via Instagram.
20. Thomas "TomSka" Ridgewell [@thetomska] (September 11, 2024). "Basically, this isn't for TryHards..." (Tweet). Retrieved January 18, 2025– via Twitter.
21. "Soap stars box clever at park wacky races". www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
22. "Fast and frikken ridiculous in Soweto". TravelStart Blog. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
23. "Red Bull energy drink brings iconic soapbox races to Fremont | The Falcon". www.thefalcononline.com. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
24. Tyagi, Hari (October 15, 2007). "Soapbox cars race down College Hill". Brown Daily Herald. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
25. "Soapbox derby brings out the daring and the daft". www.newsletter.co.uk. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
26. "Red Bull Soapbox Race Makes First-Ever Canadian Pit Stop in Vancouver". Newswire Canada. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
27. Political, Wyatt Closs; Strategist, Pop Culture; Observer, Keen; www.bigbowlofideas.com, Voracious Consumer (May 23, 2011). "2011 Red Bull Soapbox Race Designs -- Rate 'Em!". The Huffington Post. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
28. EndPlay (June 11, 2012). "Red Bull Soap Box Derby features crazy cars, racers" . Retrieved August 10, 2016.
29. "Ridiculously-dressed teams, cars falling apart at Red Bull Soapbox Race". Archived from the original on September 20, 2012. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
30. "Soap box racers compete in Taiwan". USA Today .
31. "Red Bull Soapbox Race 2014". August 25, 2014. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
32. South, Holland Expat Center. "Red Bull Soapbox Race" . Retrieved August 10, 2016.
33. "Red Bull Soapbox Race: Dozens of home-made vehicles compete in madcap". July 12, 2015. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
34. Harrington, Ashley (August 30, 2015). "'Peep My Ride' wins 99th Red Bull Soapbox Race in Eden Park" . Retrieved August 10, 2016.
35. "The meek will not inherit the world of Red Bull". September 7, 2015. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
36. "Greenville team wins soapbox race" . Retrieved August 10, 2016.
37. "More than 30,000 spectators for Red Bull Soapbox spectacular". June 6, 2016. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
38. "Cluj: 41 de vehicule artizanale inedite în concursul Red Bull Soapbox Race" . Retrieved September 3, 2016.
39. "Red Bull Soapbox Race Returns To India On November 13th - ZigWheels". ZigWheels.com. Retrieved April 5, 2021.
40. "Red Bull Soapbox Race Santiago 2016". November 27, 2016. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
41. "Red Bull Box Cart Race, 6th Oct, 2019 | Tokyo Cheapo".
42. "Bases de Promoción 'Red Bull Soapbox Race 2020'". www.redbull.com. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
43. The race was originally set to be held on June 7, 2020, but was later cancelled due to the emergency measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On October 21 of the same year, the deputed jury gathered to select and rate seventy projects, awarding the best three ones.
44. "Red Bull Soapbox Race Cruising Into Des Moines". www.catchdesmoines.com. January 24, 2022. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
45. "Red Bull Soapbox Race London 2022: Official Event Page". redbull.com. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
46. "Red Bull Soapboxraces – netventure" . Retrieved January 2, 2025.
47. "Red Bull Soapbox Thrilled Jordanians in Amman - Jordan News | Latest News from Jordan, MENA". Jordan News | Latest News from Jordan, MENA. September 9, 2023. Retrieved January 2, 2025.
48. Krishnamurthy, P. (March 5, 2024). "Thrills, spills: Red Bull Soapbox Race entertains thousands in Hyderabad". www.newstap.in. Retrieved January 2, 2025.
49. "Red Bull Soapbox Race attracts 30,000 to Edmonton river valley". June 23, 2024.
50. "Alexandra Palace: Red Bull Soapbox race attracts thousands". BBC News. June 23, 2024. Retrieved January 1, 2025.

External links

• Official website
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F32ZGeXQZw