Fresh off of a GTE Pro class victory at the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans, Aston Martin Racing has taken yet another podium, but this time it was at an event with a little less provenance.
A crack team of Aston Martin Racing employees descended upon London this weekend to participate in the infamous Red Bull Soapbox event from Alexander Palace. The automaker put together an adorable little soapbox racer that looks like someone shot their Vantage GTE with a shrink ray and it actually turned out to be pretty competitive, with the team taking second behind overall winners Brooklands Special.
Driving the fun-sized Vantage was Aston Martin prototype operations engineer Alex Summers, who is also a part-time hillclimb racer. They would’ve stuck Jonny Adam or another one of their racing drivers in the little soapbox racer, but Aston is hoping to keep their drivers in one piece as the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship season continues.
Our mini V8 Vantage GTE is in the pits here at @redbulluk #RedBullSoapboxRace and we can’t wait to get this fired up! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/GQ76FXaX7c
— Aston Martin Racing (@AMR_Official) July 9, 2017
“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 racing boss David King said. “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!”
Aston Martin’s logo appears on Formula 1 team Red Bull Racing’s cars, so it was only fitting that the two joined forces for this fun event. Perhaps this is the start of manufacturer-backed Red Bull soapbox racing. We certainly wouldn’t be complaining.
Some HUGE air this year at #RedBullSoapboxRace pic.twitter.com/LALQKoCY19
— Red Bull UK (@RedBullUK) July 9, 2017
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