Monday 10th July 2017

RedBull Soapbox gives Aston Martin wings

What would a PH soapbox racer look like?

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Having secured a famous GTE Pro class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, Aston Martin Racing narrowly missed out on a second historic victory of the summer by finishing second at the Red Bull Soapbox race in London. Oh well, you can't win them all...

Campaigning a miniaturised V8 Vantage GTE, Aston Martin's factory squad finished second to overall winners Brooklands Special. The event, held at Alexandra Palace, saw 27 crews compete in gravity racers of various shapes and designs, from Hair Force One's Donald Trump in a bathtub to You Gotham Be Kidding Me's Batman-themed machine.

The competitors were judged on speed, creativity and showmanship. Aston Martin Racing's mini Vantage was driven by Alex Summers, who works as a prototype operations engineer at Aston Martin by day and, in his spare time, competes in the British Hillclimb Championship.

Having won the series in 2015, Summers knows more than most about racing on narrow hill courses. Although he's usually pointing up the hill while piloting a 3.5-litre V8-powered Gould single-seater...

Speaking before the event David King, President of Aston Martin Racing, said, 'When taking on a challenge as big as this it is important to rally your troops and throw everything you've got at it. Aston Martin has enjoyed great on-track success with the V8 Vantage GTE so it was the obvious choice for the design of our soapbox entry. I don't think we'll be putting our race drivers in it though as we need them to be in one piece for their next World Endurance Championship race the following week!'

This isn't the first time Aston Martin and Red Bull have joined forces. The British sports car maker's iconic wing logo features on the bodywork of Red Bull Racing's Formula 1 cars, while the ultra-exclusive Valkyrie hypercar is a collaboration between the two brands. Alex Summers who piloted the mini Aston down the track said, "As the driver, the best thing about not being in the performance at the start was that I was able to see everything happen around me. It was a truly chaotic pit stop but the crowd really seemed to enjoy it!"

Well done to everybody at Aston Martin for having the sense of humour to take on the brilliant Red Bull Soapbox race. Here's hoping the team can go one better in 2018.

[Skylinecrazy]

Alex never owned the 3.5 Gould, it belonged to 6 times champion Scott Moran. Alex shared it with Scott when he won the title.

He Campaigns a 2.5 litre Opel V6 DJ Firestorm in the BHC now.