Kestrachern

A trip to Atlanta this past weekend let me take part in the only Red Bull Soap Box Race this year. I was again working with the OceanWatch Productions crew and like past events had a great time.

The plan for the weekend was:

• drive to Atlanta Thursday Night
• Prep for the race on Friday
• work the start ramp, tear down
• see if Maria and Mike had time for dinner
• arrive back in Saint Petersburg

Overall the plan went as expected. Not only was I able to have dinner with Maria and Mike on Saturday, I managed to meet up with Shannon on Friday night. She gave me a tour of her Atlanta restaurant, which happened to be just around the corner from the Red Bull race, before we had a late dinner and drinks. I got the chance to introduce her to Red Bull Cola. Wonder if she like it…..

The race itself was great fun. Rain on Friday delayed the setup slightly and we did not finish until 8:30 PM. However there were no problems when we rechecked gear on Saturday morning so happy faces all around. After running 1000’s of feet of cable for the cameras and audio equipment I found myself working the start ramp with Pete, a great camera operator. The only drawback to working the start ramp is that you don’t have much a chance for lunch or breaks of any kind for as soon as a team launches their vehicle down the course the next one is coming up. Except in cases of wrecks we were launching a vehicle every five minutes.

My favorite team of the event was the Yellow Fur Bus. The had a big yellow fur covered school bus, whose driver wore crazy big mouse ears and played the trumpet while driving down the course. Their skit was hysterical and involved yellow fur speedos in the telling of a convoluted story of the Fur Bus history. As the bus left the ramp it began to slow down so the co-pilot jumped out and began pushing the bus down the course. Once the bus began the pick up speed it crashed into the hay bales alongside the course launching the driver, ears trumpet and all through the front window area (but there was no window) Not to be undone he grabs his trumpet and with fur speedo and mouse ears flapping sprints to the finish line. I wish I could have gotten a copy of that. It may have been the heat exhaustion and excess caffeine or tey may really have been that funny.

Dinner with Maria and Mike in Macon was a delight. I had the chance to meet some of their friends and caught up with what was going on in their lives over the past week. As I was still wired with caffeine it was an animated and exciting meal.

Over the next few weeks McTastic and I enjoyed the consumption of large quantities of Red Bull. It was always sad to see the last can come out of the fridge. But time to stock up again.

This was the only Red Bull event for me this summer. Next year I’m planning to be a part of more of them. I’m also contemplating starting a team and participating on a different level. If you have the desire to join me lets get together and do it. In 2010 there are nearly ten events put on by Red Bull – soapbox races and Flugtags. I wanna be at as many as possible.