Having a car in Los Angeles is pretty much a necessity. You can’t walk anywhere and public transportation is so horrible, you’re left with almost no choice but to drive.


Having a soapbox racer in Los Angeles, on the other hand, not so much a necessity. Until Saturday. On the 26th of September, on Grand Ave. And 5th St., right here in Downtown, almost 50 soapbox racing teams will compete in the Red Bull Soapbox Race. The racers will be faced with a crazy course of drops, turns, and everything in between.  And if you’re thinking “okay that’s exciting, but they’re just cars going down a street”, you are totally wrong. The 47 teams were carefully chosen out of 200 applicants. The winners will be picked based on three criteria: speed, creativity, and showmanship. So be prepared to see anything from a giant nose to Pac-Man flying down the streets of LA.


The event is free (woo!) and begins at 11:00AM with soapbox viewing. The opening ceremony is at 12:30PM and the race begins at 1:00PM. The first place winners of the race will get the ultimate Red Bull NASCAR experience..or something like that.






Now let’s move  on to more important matters. While there may be 47 teams participating in the race, one team in particular is all you should really care about, cause well, they’re from the future and trying to save the world. Team Apocolypse, with driver Zantor Wipple have crafted a pretty crazy soapbox    racer out of things like a shopping cart, golf club, and what looks like the barrel of a machine gun. If we are to believe what the team is telling us, “On September 26, 2009, a young scientist will unleash a deadly virus in downtown Los Angeles.” Wipple and his cast of time traveling heroes will do their best to thwart this villain and save the world…I guess by winning the race? Find out more here at their blog or join their facebook group and cheer ‘em on on Saturday as they try to do the impossible and save us all from destruction.

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WHAT: Red Bull Soapbox Race
WHEN: Saturday, September 26th @ 11:00AM
WHERE: Grand Ave. & 5th St.
$$$: Free

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 2:33 pm and is filed under adventure, calendar, contest, diy, free, outdoors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.