Teams

Kool Mobile (Talawanda High School)

Garage Headquarters: Oxford, OH

Driver: TBD

Mechanics: Quentin Perretta, Ross Mallaley, Sam Stephenson, Jim McWilliams, Sam Stephenson

Nuts and Bolts:

December 19, 1988: a date that will live in lawn-sports infamy. Just in time for the holidays, the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned sales of Jarts, a brand of once-popular lawn darts that have since faded into obscurity. Nineteen years later, Jim McWilliams gallantly carried the mantle for the prohibited projectiles when his Legalize Jarts team competed at Red Bull Soapbox Providence 2007. This year, the art teacher at Talawanda High School and his team of students will resurrect another relic from the past.

Although the Kool-Aid Man may lack the edginess of flying metal darts, he nonetheless holds a special place in the hearts of the Kool Mobile team. “Our inspiration is old Kool-Aid commercials,” Jim says. One of the three student members of Kool Mobile (Sam Stephenson, Quentin Perretta and Ross Mallaley) will serve as driver, although everyone in Jim’s sculpture class will help create the racer. The Oxford, Ohio high schoolers will re-create the walking, talking, wall-busting pitcher of refreshment with metal, wood, plastic and papier-mache.

During the skit, the Kool Mobile will smash through faux bricks and dole out beverages, much to the delight of the team. Hopefully that will be the last wall that the Kool Mobile hits once the rotund racer rolls off the starting line.