We Check Out Preparations For the Belfast Stormont Estate Red Bull Soapbox Race 17th May 2026

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:02]Good afternoon. It's Saturday the 16th of May. It's coming up to 3:00 and we're in Stormmont Estate. And what have we got here? We have got the Red Bull Soapbox Race Belfast 2026.

[00:00:20]All sponsored by Red Bull. And basically, you build your own cart and you race down. You race down this track in behind or in beside the straw bales and you hope that you don't wreck yourself.

[00:00:43]And that's your stopping off point down here.

[00:00:48]And you can you can build up a right bit of speed here. You you can go at a crater.

[00:00:54]>> Is that a ramp?

[00:00:55]>> That's Yes, that that is a ramp. And so you you lift off there and uh you go mega speed and and anybody participating in this is mad in the head.

[00:01:15]And they're twoman go-karts or or soap boxes or whatever you build them to look like. And the funnier the better. And I would say you could you could you could be hitting what 25 30 m an hour.

[00:01:32]So the boys the boys are building these up at the minute and it's a free event tomorrow Sunday.

[00:01:42]Uh and there'll be stacks of people and there's plenty of uh people selling Fast food here so you'll not go hungry.

[00:01:59]And there's plenty of toilets way down in over here.

[00:02:14]>> But you do have to be mad in the head.

[00:02:17]And these are some of these boys some of the potential crews who are going to be taking part.

[00:02:28]They look like the type of boy that would would be mad enough to do this.

[00:02:45]Oh, nothing set up.

[00:03:04]Plenty of activity going on.

[00:03:11]Oh my goodness gracious. Look at Look at the Look at the ramp up here.

[00:03:16]>> Oh my goodness.

[00:03:32]>> And uh look at this. Look at this rum.

[00:03:38]Oh my goodness.

[00:03:40]So if you hit that ramp, which you would do, you'll be hitting that at 25 30 mph and that ramp there is guaranteed to rip your we soap box apart.

[00:03:58]That's crazy.

[00:04:00]So, your your your soap box or your go-kart, >> it it would it would have to be pretty sturdily built to survive going over that.

[00:04:17]That's crazy.

[00:04:19]And there's a we chain in here.

[00:04:26]>> Oh, those boys are filming it. You can see you can see they were talking to somebody who's filmed it and they said they'll be surprised if anybody or if many get beyond kind of >> Yes. those those guys there are part of the the group that's involved in this and they tell me that you see this ramp here. They'll be surprised if anybody reaches reaches that the the this the soap box or or the go-kart will have had disintegrated because it'll have taken so much of a bashion but up down past Carson's monument here up there.

[00:05:07]One of them was thinking, you know, that they might be reaching speeds of what, 25, 30 mph. And the cameras set up all over the place.

[00:05:20]It it uh had a some crack and let's hope nobody gets seriously hurt. You know, it's a fun activity and everybody's meant to get a good laugh out of it.

[00:05:36]And it's free, as I said, to come along and watch this.

[00:05:44]And here's here's another ramp.

[00:05:48]You hit that and then you bounce.

[00:05:54]you go up four or five ft and you're probably coming down on on pram wheels and and your soap box or your go-kart is only allowed to be made of specific materials. So, we're talking about cardboard and will it withstand any kind of drop and abuse?

[00:06:19]Very, very unlikely.

[00:06:29]a brave amount of activity. And these boys go all over the UK and put on these shows. Your your boy over there with a southern accent or talking to the he was telling us that there's a big event at Alexander Palace over in London.

[00:06:52]This is this is well put together.

[00:06:55]Of course, there'll be security on tonight cuz there's a lot of lot of gear here.

[00:07:06]And this, of course, is Storm up in behind us. An iconic setting for this.

[00:07:16]And this will probably go out in some sort of channel, TV channel.

[00:07:28]>> And there's Carson, Edward Carson, first prime minister of Northern Ireland. He's going to be looking over at all.

[00:07:42]race starts up at the top here. I presume soft tire up there.

[00:08:06]>> Yes.

[00:08:10]take it that this is the VIP area.

[00:08:19]>> It's a big undertaking.

[00:08:34]>> Yeah, I know.

[00:08:48]Oh yes, the red bull wings.

[00:08:53]We'll just go back here.

[00:08:57]>> And this is looking down >> the main entrance into Stormmont, which is this is exactly one mile long, but the course, the Red Bull course, uh, doesn't take in the bottom, the bottom part.

[00:09:23]I wouldn't mind one of these three fork lifts or one of these boys.

[00:09:33]There's there's a control tower over there.

[00:09:52]They've got their comfy chairs.

[00:09:53]>> Oh, you see that there? That's the That's the VIP area. I would say >> they're sitting. They're going to see them just going around.

[00:10:02]>> Oh, they'll see them flying around there. You probably wonder, do you pay pay extra for those?

[00:10:10]>> Right. It's getting a we bit drizzly.

[00:10:16]So, the place is in advanced stage of preparation.

[00:10:28]That's the boogy man away past.

[00:10:33]And apparently the weather is is not going to be very nice tomorrow.

[00:10:42]So dear help them. That'll add to the uh to the difficulties of of the competitors.

[00:10:51]>> They just drive over anything. He just drove over that up the car.

[00:10:55]>> That's right. Oh wow. He's got a big thick wheelies tires.

[00:11:10]And this poor park is so well maintained.

[00:11:17]>> What do you call the avenue in front of us?

[00:11:19]>> Massi.

[00:11:20]>> Ah, that's Massie Avenue. And we are looking across to the Massie Avenue entrance to Stormland.

[00:11:32]And this is completely open to the public.

[00:11:39]And up until Mo Mullen, who was Secretary of State, oh, can't even remember when that was. Probably in the >> 2000s, I think.

[00:11:47]>> Was she in here? 2000. Uh she's sadly dead now, but she opened this whole place up for concerts and entertainment and everything else and for the public and it's just a >> the play park.

[00:12:07]>> The play she Yes, she was behind the building of the play park which is absolutely fantastic.

[00:12:16]There you are. There's our there Stormant estate and Stormmont up here where our assembly meet. What a what a beautiful setting for our assembly.

[00:12:44]And this is a view from the entrance.

[00:12:52]Get there some course.

[00:13:15]I hope nobody gets hurt.

[00:13:33]And this is where we are.

[00:13:39]Very imposing entrance.

[00:13:50]All the buggy drivers are in for a we cup of tea.

[00:13:57]And this is what Red Bull have put out and say about this race.

[00:14:04]Uh starts at 2:00, gets open at 1:00 and it's free entry.

[00:14:18]40 fearless teams go head to head in the shadow of uh one of Belfast's most famous landmarks.

[00:14:31]And there's the course and there's the key on the right hand side.

[00:14:42]access via the upper Newton road, but I think you could get in at the play park as well.

[00:14:52]So, there you go.

[00:14:56]And Belfast Live have put out in pictures what some of the teams are going to look like.

[00:15:03]That's a classy car there or some of the cars look like.

[00:15:18]Let's hope nobody goes home with a coffin.

[00:15:27]That's the course.

[00:15:36]They're well put together these. That's the Incredibles.

[00:15:46]That's a Massie Ferguson.

[00:15:49]Very appropriate for Belfast.

[00:15:54]Harry Ferguson, the inventor, the tractor inventor, came from Dere.

[00:16:02]There's it being unloaded.

[00:16:06]There's a steamroller.

[00:16:11]A lot of work has gone into this.

[00:16:14]A lot of creativity.

[00:16:26]Got good suspension and all. You know, there's a fish in behind it.

[00:16:36]Rusties.

[00:16:54]There's a girl wearing flower power gear from the 70s, white boots.

[00:17:03]And there's the fish again.

[00:17:06]I love this. I really love this. This is class.

[00:17:11]Look at the the suspension there at the wheels.

[00:17:20]That's brilliant.

[00:17:23]Brilliant job.

[00:17:28]And that's it.

[00:17:31]That's so creative.

[00:17:36]Would love to have seen the seen the machines yesterday, but must have done that.