A day after Red Bull Racing Starman and three-time defending champion Max Verstappen opened the 2024 season of the F1 with a dominant win at the Bahrain Grand Prix in the Middle Eastern nation, the Austrian energy drink company had a special kind of race slated to ensue across the median with the Red Bull Soapbox Racing event in Hyderabad.
The downhill race or non-engine vehicles, relying on Newton’s postulate of gravity and the human guarding instinct of brakes, featuring multiple contestants trying to outbid one another to the finish line in an expedition of either bravery or tomfoolery, depending on how you opt to look at the feat.
The Ramnaidu Studio in the Film City district of the Telangana capital set the perfect venue for the energy drink-fueled adventure as people from across all walks of life and encompassing multiple age groups romped in to take a look at the man-made machines, sans engines still mind you, run down a hill without causing any serious harm to the daredevils willing enough to commandeer a vehicle.
The idea, born in Brussels, Belgium, over 130 iterations of the downhill daredevil-ry have been carried out by the energy drink giants, who discovered the power of implied marketing while other brands held steadfast on conventional methods.
Of course, a Soapbox cart modeled after the title-winning F1 car was at the forefront of the event as the men and women responsible for patching up the mobile together were hard at work even minutes ahead of the much-awaited roll out in India, after a hiatus of eight long years.
There was the eye-catching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mobile that was complete with the makers and rider of the vehicle suited up in all TMNT gear, Michaelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo and … as the tots who flocked in to catch a glimpse of the carts stood glued to the exhibit housing the creative cart.
The international flavours were of course complemented by a dash of ‘desi’ builts such as the likes of the Dolamite, Baingan (Aubergine) and cart modelled after the dish synonymous with Hyderabad, the Biriyani.
There was also a play on the famous Batmobile rounded off by the team members draped in Justice League costumes. The show also permitted carts from big-name brands such as Philips, a team that endorsed their flagship trimming product with a grooming stunt on the racetrack. Swiggy Instamart and Smart Bazaar as well.
The downhill track featuring bales of hay as fall-breakers and drizzled with obstacles in the form of kickers left a number of cart casualties in its wake, thankfully without inflicting injuries on the contestants. However, at the end of the day the track looked like a cacophony of dismantled cart parts, ticker tape, foam and costume bits that had shot off on a projectile on road.
As the Red Bull fuelled night came to a close the contestants, who were scored on a three-fold basis including the finish time, their design and their pre-race performances, received their results with the ‘kraken Attack’, a cart designed after a hospital bed complete with a makeshift patient and a madeup doctor topped the scoring charts, followed by the ‘TMNT’ cart, who also finished second in the previous iteration of the event in India. And in a rather befitting manner, ‘Biriyani’ completed the podium as the standup comedians hosting the event signed off for the year.
Comments
0 comment