Teams

Back To The Future

Garage Headquarters: Avon, CO

Driver: Dave Bienvenue

Mechanics: Steven Brown, Chris Phillips, David Sargent, Lee Poole

Nuts and Bolts:

If you live in Avon, Colorado, located west of Denver in the Vail Valley, chances are that your vocation involves going down hills super fast. Take Dave Bienvenue: the 26-year-old is a bike and ski technician. His buddy Steven Brown (25), although a landscape specialist in the summer, works as a snowboard instructor in the winter. Their pal Chris Phillips (23) has a similar story to Steve’s – just insert “ski” for “snowboard.” And their friends Lee Poole (21) and David Seargent (26) both work with Dave as bike mechanics. They all get together at least once a week to have dinner “family style,” talk about their latest exploits, and bemoan what they perceive as a tragic lack of girls in the valley. And these days, they’ve been working off their dinners by building their latest downhill racer – a soapbox car that combines themes from two popular movies.

“’Back to the Future’ and ‘Transformers’ are the inspirations,” explains Dave, who is serving double duty as the team’s captain and driver. “We’re making a United States Postal Service wagon out of wood that will transform into a Roman chariot made of aluminum.” The teammates are assembling the contraption in Dave’s garage and have high hopes for a blockbuster performance. In a bold, if not entirely serious, prediction, Dave declares, “This may be the best soapbox car in the history of Red Bull!”