The quiet suburb of Bandra came alive with excitement this Sunday as thousands witnessed vadapavs, pizza slices, snails, and pirate ships race down the famous Mount Mary Road at India’s first Red Bull Soapbox Race.
Approximately 10,000 people came out to cheer one of the craziest road races I’ve seen yet. After a short carnival parade the teams started racing, the ‘Dabbawallas’ Team Tritech and Feni Talks winning the first, second and third places respectively. The task given to the teams were to design and build imaginative, human-powered soapbox machines and compete against the clock in a downhill race course which was riddled with jumps, bumps and curves.
The ‘Dabbawallas’ had a colourful soapbox ferrying the quintessential food dabbas while team ‘Tritech’ and ‘Feni Talks’ left the crowds ecstatic,riding in their radio controlled car-inspired soapbox and tricycle shaped feni bottle respectively. The ‘Dabbawallas’ wins a chance to experience the World of Red Bull at Salzburg, Austria coupled with a visit to Hangar 7 and the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM, German Touring Car Masters) Racing Circuit. Team ‘Tritech’ won a fully paid experience for Sunburn Goa 2012 and team ‘Feni Talks’ got a free entry to the most happening New Year party in town along with their friends. A total of 53 soapboxes raced down the ‘Mount Mary Circuit’ to battle it out for the title. The Red Bull Soapbox Race was a fun non-motorized racing event which challenged both experienced racers and amateurs.
