Big O with retractable roof in it to win it at Montreal's Red Bull Soapbox Race
It's entirely possible that the retractable roof on a miniature, soapbox replica of the Montreal's Olympic Stadium works better than the real thing.
The makers of the Big O soapbox hope their creation is destined for greatness at the Red Bull Soapbox Race, an international race taking place in the city on Sunday.
Francis Primeau says he and his Montreal Connection teammates — engineers Simon Milhomme, Jean-François Boivin, Frédéric Pépin and Frédéric Tremblay — have spent at least 500 hours building the soapbox. It travels well, has a functioning retractable roof and even lights up.
"We stopped counting, anyway," Primeau told Our Montreal host Sonali Karnick.
He and Milhomme stopped by the CBC Montreal building this week in Expos regalia to show off their little Big O.
Primeau says he couldn't have thought of a better, more emblematic structure for Montreal than the Big O to recreate as a soapbox. The stadium was built for the 1976 Montreal Olympics and later served as the home of the Montreal Expos baseball team.
The Montreal Connection team is one of 43 competing on Sunday, a comparatively small pool of competitors whittled down from 2,000-plus race applicants.
When they found out they'd been selected, their Big O dreams kicked into high gear.
"We said, 'Alright, well let's go and do everything we can,'" Primeau says.
The race starts at 1 p.m. at Square Victoria in downtown Montreal.
Here are some of the competitors Montreal Connection is facing off against:
Wacky Wagon
Le Pothole
Maurice Ri-Char
See the other competitors' soapboxes here.
