Teams

Atlanta Hillbillies

Garage Headquarters: Scottdale, GA

Driver: Brian Southard

Mechanics: Ted Ladue, Jason Jumbelic, Richard Guillimet, Jill Douglas

Nuts and Bolts:

Come and listen to a story ‘bout a soapbox team, poor mountaineers but they’re faster than they seem. When one day they were dreaming of a win, they learned of a contest about to begin. Red Bull, that is. Soapbox Race. ATL.

So begins the tale of the Atlanta Hillbillies, a crew based deep in the backwoods of Scottdale (an ATL suburb almost a full ten miles from the Beverly Hills-like glamour of the city center). The teammates -- Kevin Gordon, Jason “Jumbo” Jumbelic, Ted Ladue, and Brian Southard – are friends from the mountainboarding community; and as owner of Hillbilly Protection, which produces legendary impact shorts, Brian is responsible for literally saving their asses. These teammates may be rough around the edges compared to the refined residents of glitzy Atlanta, but they have their own special talents. You may remember Brian and Ted’s theatrical skills: they were eaten by zombies in “Evil Keg,” a 2007 movie with the classy tag line, “It’s killer time.” Ted is the only 230-pound man known to have completed a backflip on a mountainboard. And, of most interest to the other contenders on August 29, Brian is the defending 2008 Atlanta Soapbox Derby champion. “We’re going to impress the crowd at the Red Bull Soapbox Race with our Beverly Hillbillies skit and our moonshine,” Brian promises. “Wait till they see our 230-pound Granny in the back seat!”