When the first-ever Red Bull Soapbox Utah race arrives Saturday at the State Capitol Building, it’ll bring a record-breaking number of entries. Teams arrive from as far as Raleigh, North Carolina, and as close to home as Ogden and Layton, featuring a combined four Northern Utah teams in the event’s first-ever stop in the Beehive State.

For three Ogden-area teams and a Layton-based outfit, it’ll be their first taste of Red Bull in the extreme sports space. The company has sponsored athletes since 1989 and brings its Soapbox race to Utah following its May 31 race in Des Moines, Iowa.

The course begins atop Main Street, south of the Capitol Building. Drivers are tasked with safely bringing their home-designed vehicles south on Main to the finish line on West North Temple Street. A full map and schedule of Saturday’s race are available at the official Red Bull website.

In a nutshell, the event website describes the race as follows:

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“Red Bull Soapbox Race is a race of non-motorized carts down a custom course that consists of turns, jumps, and obstacles. Teams of up to five members will perform a skit before propelling their cart down the course. Their driver will navigate obstacles in hopes of logging the fastest times. Creative themes will be on display from a variety of unique homemade soapbox carts.”

Red Bull first introduced its version of extreme soapbox racing in Belgium in 2000. The concept revolves around amateur-built, motorless vehicles judged for three distinct categories: speed, creativity and showmanship. Only a third of a team’s score relates to their driving performance, leaving added emphasis on the appearance and presentation of their vehicles upon arrival.

The official list of Utah 2025 teams debuted in May, with Salt Lake City breaking the record for U.S. entries in a single Red Bull Soapbox racing event. All submitted proposals must be gravity-powered and adhere to stringent specs and braking capabilities.

Included in that list is Layton’s own Spacestation Gaming, a subsidiary of the creator agency of the same name, founded by Weber State alum Shaun “Shonduras” McBride.

The Spacestation team, which competes in gaming competitions globally, based their car design on a custom, in-game skin found in the popular driver-based soccer video game Rocket League. Team captain Zach Cortez, Blake Borchers, Parker Winchester, Jackson Anderson and Tyler White are swapping out their controllers for the real thing this weekend.

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Transitioning from their day-to-day operations to a hands-on project was another test of their camaraderie and an opportunity to share a fan experience in their backyard, Borchers said.

“What we do normally is a very tight-knit group of people,” Borchers said. “We know each other pretty well, and we kind of naturally find our place within this project pretty quickly.”

All teams, whether local or not, are required to drop their vehicles off at the Capitol Building for a pre-race inspection Friday. Red Bull Soapbox Utah will feature 45 total teams from across the country.

North of Layton, the Ogden-Weber area features three of those homegrown squads.

When news of the race went public in February, four Syracuse High alums were among the first ones drawing mock-ups of their desired vehicle. Hyrum Briscoe, a Pleasant View-based geologist and captain of Team “Orcs and Dorks,” put together his dream of “Grond the Gate Smasher,” an explicably-sized bat used as a battering ram in The Lord of the Rings.

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Briscoe, along with teammates Andrew Egbert, a secondary teacher; Marrissa Park, a florist; Scott Park, an automotive parts specialist; and Tory Johnson, a chemist and microbiologist, each threw together an application and fired their shot with Red Bull.

“To make sure we got in, all three of us submitted separate applications,” Briscoe said.

In Ogden, Kyle Stringham pitched his younger brothers Tyler (software analyst and diesel mechanic), Bruce (welder), and Wyatt (plumber), briefly on the idea earlier in February, later receiving an approved application and accepting his role in this weekend’s race.

Together, their vehicle, based on the 19th-century German-Swiss novel Heidi, is comprised mostly of scrap metal provided by a man by the name of “Old Geezer,” otherwise referred to as Layne Tilby on his driver’s license or other mundane documents.

Right down to the brakes, the Stringham clan, known Saturday as “Heidi’s Hooligans,” found just about everything in Tilby’s scrapyard.

Ryan Taylor, Red Bull Content Pool

Like any project, as Bruce Stringham says, their competing ideas for a finished product always came down to putting extra hours in the garage.

“You’re having to blend multiple ideas to get to a final vision,” Bryce Stringham said. “It’s not been perfect every day. Sometimes it got to ‘Alright, we’re yelling on the phone too much, let’s get face-to-face so this makes more sense.

“There’s been a lot of tension,” Kyle Stringham added jokingly.

The contest itself is built on unconventional and humorous elements fueling the race’s “spirit of design,” as the event’s website writes.

Pyrotechnics, smoke canisters and non-family-friendly imagery, as well as political signage or advertising, are prohibited from cart designs. Like the vehicle chassis, all design elements must be home-made and designed by team members themselves.

Courtesy of Spacestation

Tossing around a few humorous ideas of their own, West Haven’s “Powder Pioneers,” comprised of Fremont High alums Taiben Achter, Ryder Rivera, Race Rivera and Austin Gaz, settled on something close to their hearts instead: the Wasatch Range.

What started as an Instagram post quickly became a hard deadline for Achter and his crew. Achter and Ryder Rivera designed the vehicle and its outer, mountainous enclosure, while Gaz and Race Rivera brought the vehicle to life, welding and making real-time adjustments.

“We honestly had no idea we were going to make it,” Achter said.

Upon approval, Taiben scoured Facebook for a four-wheeler frame. The group locked themselves in the garage, welding and shaping their dream car.

All four members, ranging in age from 19 to 20, spent most of their childhoods working at Snowbasin. The Pioneers can be regularly found skiing, snowboarding, or, frankly, just outdoors, and such a reputation caught the attention of the resort, which opted to sponsor the boys.

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No one’s been tabbed as the Powder Pioneers’ driver, but that name will emerge from a hat before the checkered flag waves at noon Saturday.

An official race order has not been announced but all four Northern Utah squads will conduct a 30-second skit before launching their vehicle down Main Street. The lineup will undoubtedly include more moments worthy of Red Bull’s greatest hits reel on YouTube.

The top three teams will receive unspecified “trophies and prizes” during an award ceremony scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

No tickets are required for the event, and those unable to attend can stream the race through Atmosphere TV.

A slew of guests and honorary judges are set to attend, including custom builders Dave Kindig and Kevin Schiele, professional skydiver Mike Brewer, Olympic climber Natalia Grossman, and comedian Tyler Bender.

RACE DAY SCHEDULE

10 a.m. – Gates open. Spectators and teams gather at the top of the course.

Noon – Opening ceremonies

12:05 p.m. – First races begin

3:30 p.m. – Awards and closing ceremonies

Connect with sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net and X @ctbecker.