Kanab team selected to be one of fifty national Redbull Soapbox Race contestants

“My kids and I have been watching these soapbox races for a long time just for the fun of it,” Says Matt Henke, “I’ve known what those events are and how they work, and when we saw they were coming to do a race in Salt Lake City, on a whim I thought, ‘Why not?’”

(L-R) Matt Henke, Tom Avant, Doug Thebeau, Richard Bartlett, Jordan Kelley.

Photos courtesy of Matt and Rae Henke.

Henke and his team - in his words, “An architect and four engineers, but really just a bunch of grown-up kids” - applied for the Salt Lake Redbull Soapbox Race four months ago, with a concept design for a poten­tial race entrant, and were chosen from hundreds of applicants to be one of fifty racers to compete.

Says Henke, “From con­cept to completion, it’s a very fun process. We brainstormed probably two dozen ideas and narrowed it down to the one we thought was most fun … luckily, I have a lot of skilled indi­viduals, I could handle the creative aspects of it, but my team members regu­larly participate in these sorts of automotive and en­gineering builds. Bare nuts and bolts, it’s two desert rats riding a rattle snake; just a fun idea, but we felt it was representative of us in a lot of ways. We’re from the desert around here, we know the desert wildlife, it’s the sort of storytelling we thought was a good representation of us and our community and where we’re coming from.”

Henke confirms, yes, those will be people in rat costumes piloting the cart during the race, in line with Redbull’s mission statement for the race be­ing “Zany, wacky, fearless and fun-loving.” According to past race statistics, between one third and one half of racers make it to the finish line at all, with categories for judging including creativity, engi­neering and showmanship in addition to race comple­tion time. Henke and the team are confident; says Henke, “I think we have a genuine shot at making it to the end and getting a competitive time. We’ve been practicing with the build; we’ve been getting good feedback and plenty of experience behind the wheel. I think we’ve got a good shot.”

The race itself is free to attend, held on the Utah Capitol Grounds in Salt Lake on Saturday June 14. It is also available for live-streaming on Redbull’s partner streaming service Atmosphere TV, which according to the soap­box race website is carried by most live-streaming businesses such as sports bars and restaurants. More in­formation is available at redbull.com/us-en/events/soapbox-race-utah-usa-2025.

“My family are defi­nitely an inspiration to me,” says Henke, “the idea of them being able to point to the TV during the race and say ‘There he is, there’s daddy!’ I love that idea. There’s all these little details they’ve thought of that make it very unique and fun, that’s the family side … and on the team side, I can’t give enough credit to the guys I’m working with. Just with the interactions I’ve had with them and with the race, I think I’ve as­sembled one of the best soap box car engineer­ing teams out there … I hope anyone who might be in the area of the race can stop by and wish us good luck!”