// Soapbox Chariots Of Fire //

The Devil’s Rejects Soapbox Race Team are back from Scotland, and they’ve got some new silverware for the trophy cabinet! Considering they trashed the soapbox on the practice runs the day before the race, it’s a surprise that they even took part, let alone achieve second place. The team who won overall broke the UK gravity power speed record at 64mph, so it was no shame to be placed after them; and TDR were only a second behind anyway!

The crash on the practice run smashed the front section of the car, breaking the front wheels and damaging the steering box. Undeterred, the team worked through the night in the hope of making her run again. Fortunately, at the summit of the mountain they were racing down, there was a cable-car engineering workshop. With a mixture of luck, brute force and sheer determination, they passed scrutineering the next day and were given the green flag to race.

After an increasingly difficult series of heats, The Mortician lined up against the best in the field for the final down the longest, fastest and most testing course in Britain. The rest is now written into legend, the greatest comeback story in the annals of soapbox racing. OK, so they didn’t come first, but they still beat their arch-rivals / best drinking buddies Centa Bavaria, who came in third. So it’s all good.

What makes it even more impressive is that by the end of the qualifying sessions, TDR were placed second from last out of a field of twenty eight. They were also competing against teams from Bentley who had spent £30,000 designing, building and wind-tunnel testing their racers.

Last year, when the team’s new soapbox was premiered at the Belchford Downhill Challenge, their results weren’t exactly much to write home about. They still managed to pick up the “Best turned out” award as a consolation prize. Now, they’ve proved that they’ve got the substance to back up the style, and are now proper contenders on the UK gravity racing scene.

They’ll next be appearing at the inaugural Dalby Forest soapbox derby in August, and then onto the main attraction of the year, the Belchford Downhill Challenge in September. Congratulations gents, you’re truly inspirational. Seriously.

Oh, and the badges DeathGob knocked up for the Scottish Cartie Association were a hit. Apparently “they went like snow off a dyke”.


Currently on the DG office jukebox
Vangelis: Chariots Of Fire

Posted by: Reg on 26 July 2010
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