Last Sunday saw the return of the Redbull Soapbox Race to London’s Alexandra Palace, and with the toughest course yet, it was set to be a day full of thrills, spills and good-old family entertainment. With more than 100 races held worldwide since its launch in 2000, it’s no wonder the UK race saw over 5,000 entries, with teams throughout the country vying to be the next champions of the world’s greatest soapbox race.
Whittled down to 69 competing teams, only three Welsh teams made the cut; ‘Medieval Mechanics’, ‘Vader’s Hoth Rod’ and ‘Leek Lightning’. The event, which attracted over 20,000 spectators, was aired in a three-hour special programme on Sunday night on Dave.
“We couldn’t believe we’d actually got into the race to start with,” explained Megan, team captain of ‘Leek Lightning’. “There are so many entries and we were so pleased to make the cut, although that’s where the hard work really began!”
Creating ‘Leek Lightning’ took the work colleagues from Blas y Tir (meaning ‘Taste of the Land’) almost eight months in total, and it whizzed down the complex course in an impressive 38.27 seconds, with driver Boris at the wheel. The soapbox was the brainchild of engineer Alan, who brought the design to life using mostly steel and plastic piping and covered in a material sleeve to create an aero-dynamic cart.
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“Our biggest aim was to finish, and anything better than that was a bonus!” added Megan. “The leek was an obvious choice, I don’t think a giant bag of Pembrokeshire Earlies would have made it down the hill as quickly!”
The soapboxes are judged not only on finishing times, but also on creativity and performance, with each team getting 20 seconds to ‘wow’ the judges with some form of entertainment before pushing the soapbox down the ramp. Dancing, glitter cannons and Redbull cans all featured in Leek Lightning’s ‘Grease Lightning’ themed display, and scored the team 29 out of 40 for performance points.
Combining the scores from creativity, performance and time of drive, the team came in a respectable 29th out of 69 and were the most successful Welsh team at the event.
“We’re so pleased with how everything went and had great fun competing. We’ll be taking the soapbox to all our local races to show and will definitely be trying to compete in the Redbull Soapbox Race again,” said Megan.
‘Leek Lightning’ will be representing Blas y Tir at the Haverfordwest Grand National Soapbox Derby on July 29, Upper Racecourse, Haverfordwest.