Firefighters turn up heat at soapbox race

Four firefighters from Ashford have come third in the National Redbull Soapbox Competition in London.

The race, which took place on Sunday, sees driver’s compete in homemade, non-motorised vehicles in a downhill race.

Team Rockin’ Rolla, was made up of Mike Pitney, 46, Dan Lavender, 40, Lee Rose, 47, and Mark Charlton, 24, who based their performance on an Indiana Jones scene which saw them ride over jumps, through slaloms and even water to get to the bottom of the hill.

Team captain Mr Pitney said: “We’ve been working on this for months, building a soapbox that we wanted to have an epic feel to it which included props for the crowd for the performance up on the ramp, with a rocking mine cart that I was precariously bal- anced in and a huge boulder prop that started down the hill too.

“We didn’t originally try for the podium spots,” said Mr Pitney, “but when our driver Dan saw that with the judges scoring being so high, a fast descent may just get us on the podium, he just went for it, however many times I nearly fell out.”

The other two team members who also wore theatrical costumes, shot arrows, set off smoke machines, ‘war-danced’ and took a boulder onboard just for fun down the ramp.

Rockin’ Rolla came third after scoring a perfect ten from the judges.

“It was just a simply fantastic effort by all involved,” said Mr Pitney.

Four Ashford firefighters placed third at the Redbull Soapbox London 2017 National Race