Red Bull: They Came, They Raced…. They Conquered!

There was plenty of action, thrills and spills at the Red Bull Trolley Grand Prix held in the Auckland Domain today. Eighty teams from around the country took part, however the day belonged to Wanganui Motors Transformers, who raced to glory cheered on by over 100,000 spectators.

Team Porsche – second. Photography: Graeme Murray.

Defying gravity team Wanganui Motors with Wheel Barra won an all-expenses paid trip to the Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix and a meet and greet session with Red Bull V8 super car driver, Marcus Ambrose.

Team Wanganui – winners.

“It’s been absolutely phenomenal,” says team leader of Wanganui Motors Transformers Robert Stewart. “We have had a fantastic response to our trolley. It’s a life time dream to make a trolley, then compete and win. I’ve always wanted to go to the Formula 1 so this is just amazing.”

In second place was team Porsche NZ, who also took out the fastest time with a record speed of 43.82 seconds. Third place went to team Quiky with their trolley Quicksilver.

Entries varied from the wild and wacky Crocodile Hunters, Pills and Ointment, and The Hillbillies to the slick Wanganui Motors -Transformers and Porche's lean mean racing machine. All trolleys set the course alight as the driver’s skills and techniques were challenged by dare devil turns and hair splitting chicanes.

The ‘Best Crash’ award went to team Ja-Make-car in their trolley Fool Runnings who proved that thrills and spills were part of the day.

Team Constant Chaos from the Papakura Fire Station was awarded the most creative prize with their trolley, Chariots of Fire.

Judging was no easy task for Vanessa Quin, Mike Eady, De Za Star, K Lee and Mark Russ. Points were awarded on three evenly weighted criteria; creativity, performance and finish time.

“The level of the presentation was a lot higher than last time and it was very hard to pick a winner,” says Mike Eady. “The ones who had constructed the entire trolley from scratch and those who put in the most work were the teams who stood out. I was particularly impressed by the clever engineering of team Wanganui Motors Transformers and Porsche NZ.”

In earlier celebrity races, Jo Cotton and Amber Pebbles were defeated by members of the public whilst Mark Ellis showed his crafty determination and skill to win his race. Each winner donated $1000 to a nominated charity.

It was a day of family fun and entertainment, with an overwhelming number of spectators lining the course and cheering on the teams. MCs Te Radar and Brooke Howard-Smith provided live commentary throughout the day.

“The day was outrageous and it was great to see kiwi’s having a laugh at each other and having fun,” says judge World Mountain Bike champion Vanessa Quin.

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