We attended India’s first Red Bull Soapbox Race and came back amused as well as impressed
The quiet Mumbai suburb of Bandra came alive with excitement one Sunday morning as thousands witnessed vada-pavs, pizza slices, snails and pirate ships race down the famous Mount Mary Road. I’m not joking. This was I
ndia’s first Red Bull Soapbox Race and what a fun race it was!
The air was filled with excitement as the participants geared up and the show began. The small twisty road of Bandra was soon filled with thousands of people who came out to cheer one of the craziest road races ever seen. 
After a short carnival parade the teams started racing and what followed was even more funny. We saw wheels of soap boxes rolling away alone, after a small bump you’d have one person holding the front tyre and another 
trying to hold the props on to the box; it was indeed a sight to be witnessed. The ‘Dabbawallas’ Team Tritech and Feni Talks won the first, second and third places respectively. A total of 53 soapboxes raced down the ‘Mount Mary Circuit’ to battle it out for the first prize.
The task given to the teams was to design and build imaginative, human-powered soapbox machines and compete against the clock on a downhill racecourse, which was full of jumps, bumps and curves. The ‘Dabbawallas’ had a 
colourful soapbox ferrying the archetypal food dabbas while team ‘Tritech’, riding in their radio-controlled car-inspired soapbox, and ‘Feni Talks’ tricycle-shaped feni bottle had people in raptures.
The winners, The ‘Dabbawallas’, won a trip 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 pass to one of the happening New Year parties in town along with their friends. The fastest driver of the day from the race won a 36V Electric Trikke (we envy him).
The Red Bull Soapbox Race was a fun non-motorised racing event which challenged both experienced racers, amateurs and turned out to be a day well spent.
Story & Photography: Rommel Albuquerque
