Red Bull Soapbox teams announced ahead of Stormont event next month

The event is free to attend. No ticket required. Gates open 1pm and event starts 2pm – 5pm 🚘 🪽

Author: Emma DicksonPublished 9th Apr 2026
Last updated 9th Apr 2026

The countdown is on for the return of Red Bull Soapbox Race to Stormont Estate, as Belfast prepares to host once again the high-octane, gravity-fuelled spectacle.

📍 Sunday 17th May

The free event will be open to the public, with no tickets required

With no engines and no limits on imagination, Red Bull Soapbox Race challenges teams to combine creativity, performance and showmanship in one of the world’s most unconventional downhill races.

Selected from more than 300 applications, this year’s lineup of 40 fearless teams brings together a mix of engineers, students and creatives all tasked with turning imaginative concepts into fully functioning race machines ahead of race day.

Among the teams from Northern Ireland are participants representing towns and villages across the region highlighting the depth of creativity and grassroots engineering talent. One of those teams, ‘The Slipway Scholars’ is made up of a group of teachers who’ve taken inspiration from their students at Ashfield Boy’s High School in Belfast, to help create their masterpiece.

Team lead, Darren Martin, from the Technology and Engineering Department explains how Harland & Wolff and the Titanic influenced their design, he said:

“Our school overlooks Belfast Docks, and many of our pupils have personal or family connections to the shipyard, both recent and historical. We ran a competition across every year group and it quickly became clear that a strong theme had emerged.

“We have heard stories of grandparents and great grandparents who worked there and even relatives that worked on the famous ship itself. That influence remains a strong part of our pupils’ identities, and it is fantastic they get to participate and share it in such a positive and fun way.

"What matters to them the most. The outcome will be incredible and we can’t wait to show everyone our soapbox on the 17th of May, cheered on that day by all the pupils who inspired it, of course”, said Darren.

Red Bull Soapbox Race returns to Stormont Estate, Belfast for the first time since 2008, when over 30,000 spectators turned up to watch “Ruddell Metals” from Hillsborough take the win, after the racing career of Juan Manuel Fagio and his wonderful Mercedes Silver Arrow inspired their creation.]