First look: Red Bull Soapbox Race comes to Utah
Jun 13, 2025, 3:08 PM | Updated: 6:17 pm
The Delicate For team works on their cart for Saturday's Red Bull Soapbox Race. (Eric Cabrera/KSL NewsRadio)
(Eric Cabrera/KSL NewsRadio)
SALT LAKE CITY — On Saturday, dozens of thrill seekers will barrel down Main Street near the Utah Capitol in homemade go-karts during the Red Bull Soapbox Race.
KSL NewsRadio got a first look at one of the carts competing.
“We ride for family. We ride for Utah, we ride for the Delicate Arch, and we ride for life or death,” Gideon Dushku said.
The Dushku brothers, Gideon and Isaac, are racing with the Delicate For team along with a couple of friends. Their cart is the Delicate Arch. It’s giant, orange and around 6 feet tall.
The Delicate For team’s Delicate Arch cart for Saturday’s Red Bull Soapbox Race. (Eric Cabrera/KSL NewsRadio)
“If you’re from Utah, or if you’re stuck behind a car in Utah, you see the Delicate Arch on the license plate, and it’s probably the most iconic rock in the West, maybe the most iconic rock in the world,” Isaac Dushku said.
They’re one of 49 carts that will race down Main Street near Capitol Hill Saturday at noon in the Red Bull Soapbox Race. Theirs is just one of the Utah-themed carts; another looks like the 9th and 9th Whale. There’s also one that’s a giant beehive.
The base with the wheels is the size of a go-kart, but with all the papier-mache and tape on top, they end up being massive and bulky.
The Delicate For team works on their cart for Saturday’s Red Bull Soapbox Race. (Eric Cabrera/KSL NewsRadio)
Red Bull Soapbox Race brings attention to extreme sports
London Lazerson is a Utah local who will be hosting the event tomorrow. He’s worked with Red Bull for a handful of years now. He says they had more than 400 applicants; they accepted only a fraction. And of that small group accepted to race, he only expects about 30% to cross the finish line.
“The course is filled with almost 90-degree corners you’ve got to dodge. And their jumps aren’t even jumps. They’re just like triangle slabs of wood out in the middle of the road. So it’s meant to make people crash, that’s for sure,” Lazerson said.
As far as safety goes, Lazerson said teams wear “helmet, padding. Their soapbox carts have to have brakes, and that’s about it.”
The Red Bull Soapbox Race has been going on since 2000, originally in Brussels, Belgium. It has since been held around the world.
Lazerson said the event sets a precedent for the niche of people who want to see extreme sports.
“Utah is known for the snow, but I think there’s some other sports that are on the rise, like mountain biking and even skating. The skating scene is getting very big here. So I think people are so excited about this,” Lazerson said.
‘This is a homemade thing’
Most of the racers aren’t professional competitors.
Isaac Dushku is actually a local artist who makes maps in a fantasy style. Gideon Dushku describes him as the artistic mastermind of the plan. He’ll be in the cart tomorrow, racing.
The Delicate For team’s Delicate Arch cart for Saturday’s Red Bull Soapbox Race. (Eric Cabrera/KSL NewsRadio)
Gideon Dushku will be pushing the cart off the ramp. He’s convinced they’ll make it to the end.
“This is a homemade thing. I’m sure you can buy go-karts like this as a kit, but this bad baby’s homemade, and therefore probably not super safe, but we believe it’ll make it down Capitol Hill,” Gideon Dushku said.
In fact, Isaac Dushku said he’s pretty sure they’ll win the whole thing.
The event is free. Gates open at 10 a.m. and the first race is at noon.
Eric Cabrera contributed to the reporting of this story.
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