BLOG – Red Bull Soapbox 2019 – Alexandra Palace

A blog for the fearless, the fun loving and the foolhardy.

20,000 spectators, 400m of track, 70 creative (a little crazy) contraptions and 1 famous hill overlooking the capital. It can only be the dare devilish RED BULL SOAPBOX RACE!

The sun definitely helped the drying process of the endless number of Paper Mâché creations in the pit lanes but also allowed perfect conditions for racing.

The Red Bull Soap Box Race returned to Alexandra Palace for the first time since 2017 to face the 400m downhill track ladened with obstacles for the drivers to navigate. The 2019 event is the fourth hosted at Ally Pally.

Fast is Good, But Outrageous Is Even Better!

Soapbox cars run on manpower and gravity alone, with the London event attracting teams from all of the world, with their homemade cars of varying budgets.

The judging criteria is based around three things — speed, creativity and showmanship — so while the first to cross the finished line will fair favourably, there are other elements for contestants to be aware of.

The judges this year were; snowboarder and bronze medalist Billy Morgan, wakeboarder Joe Battleday, rugby player Max Evans and Patrick Ledbury from the NSMC. I hadn’t heard of them either and some of their scoring was questionable!

Each race starts with a performance of a 30 second clip of a song related to their theme, with extravagant dance moves and colourful costumes, before a push off from their team mates to start the course.

It’s definitely well worth a visit, it was my first event at ‘Ally Pally’ but I’ll definitely be back! It’s a fun filled day for the whole family that starts at 12 and finishes about 4.

This years winners were a team named ‘Gas, Gas, Gas’ from Melksham in Wiltshire. Their car was even powered by Red Bull can cylinders that were motorised and moving! Their first place finish was a vast improvement on their 14th place in 2017.

In second place was Bumblebee Brawl with a transformer style bee themed car. Third place went to Team Apollocalyptic in their space themed car, honouring 50 years since man walked on the moon.

From the array of outfits and skilful creativity here are some of my favourite entrants: