Crash and Burn at the 2009 Red Bull Soap Box Derby

It used to be that when I thought of Soap Box Derbies, I think of a boy and his pops building something out of scrap metal and discarded bicycle tires in their garage.  Then I watched Cool Runnings and the idea of making a push car totally caught me for a few weeks.  Well, this weekend, another evolution of the soap box occurred in Downtown LA.  Sponsored by Red Bull, the 2009 LA Soap Box Race inspired the likes of half-baked college students, fire fighters, young professionals, and plenty of strange characters to take to the hill in the most creative soap boxes they could build.

It’s hard to describe this scene to those that weren’t there.  I’ve never seen the streets of Downtown so alive and buzzing with people.  Turns out people will come from all over the county for a free event.  There literally was nowhere to walk on Grand or 5th street throughout the duration of the race, and some people turned out at 10am, 3 hours before the race, to secure a prime location.  I lived half a block away from the starting line, so I stayed in my room until 1am thinking I could get a good spot still, but boy was I wrong.

The Red Bull peeps quoted that over 100,000 people showed up to the streets.  I didn’t believe it at first, but looking at this picture again, it doesn’t seem all that unrealistic.  This many people on the streets probably could occupy the entire Coliseum.

The race course began on top of Bunker Hill at Grand and 4th, snaking it’s way down Grand, turning at the intersection of 5th and Grand, and continuing down 5th street until the conclusion at Olive street.  During the course of the race, the drivers would have to maneuver a serpentine path down the hill, tackle a high speed banked 90 degree turn, and land two jumps off one foot tall ramps.  Points were awarded on creativity, driving skill, and crowd pleasure.  Frankly, if you made it down the hill in one piece, I would declare you a winner, but everyone wants to see a show.  They want to see some crashes!

Speeds of 45 mph were reached by some cars, and brutal face-dives into gravel and haystacks were witnessed.  There was something to see for everyone.

So it’s really all about the soap boxes that were built, and there were some really creative ones.  There was a Baywatch (“Babe Watch”) themed group that drove a lifeguard tower down the course, bananas that rode a banana hammock, and Marty McFly went Back to the Future.  As you see here, there was a group driving a stripper pole, but unfortunately I was busy getting food so I didn’t see whether actual people were dancing on the way down.  That would be cool though.

Some frats and engineering clubs from all the local universities were represented here.  You could tell which carts were designed by frats and which ones were designed by engineers pretty easily.  The latter’s, of course, didn’t fall apart before the first turn.

The eternal debate between USC and UCLA wasn’t settled on the streets today.  They both crashed and burned, but I love the post Washington-defeat taunting that UCLA threw on prior to the race.  Oh and I learned that UCLA really means University of Caucasians Lost among Asians.  Clever.

I would say half the competitors never made it to the finish line in one piece.  Those that did deserve a gold star, because that is not an easy track to complete.  I held my breath every time I saw a car attempt to scale the banked wall.

My fave of the bunch has to be the Spaceballs group.  They had the best opening skit highlighted by a ring-saber battle between Lord Helmet and Bill Pullman.  All the characters, other than Yogurt, were in attendance.  And the winnebago actually survived the course with a very admirable time.  Easily the crowd favorite of the day.

Okay, next year, I’ll definitely be back.  Hell, I might even assemble a team!  This looks like fun.

http://www.redbullsoapboxusa.com/