The people-powered racing event, known as “the Grand Prix of Billy Cart events”, will be held on December 3 in Melbourne’s CBD – registrations are now open.

In a first for the Red Bull Billy Cart Race, participating teams will have the chance to upgrade from a billy cart, powered by themselves, to a real car, powered by an engine.

Suzuki Australia marketing manager – automotive, Robert Rosengarten, said: “At Suzuki, we live and breathe ‘For Fun’s Sake’. 

“We celebrate the fun of being a ‘driver’ and when the opportunity presented itself to partner with both Red Bull and their Billy Cart Race, we realised that it could only be downhill from here… pun intended! 

“Our brands share many synergies. Everything we do aims to put smiles on faces, and we are very excited to not only be awarding the winning team a Suzuki Jimny, but to also be entering our own factory team, racing our newly-built cart dubbed the ‘Jimny Really Lite’.”

Rookie Supercar driver, Broc Feeney, with a Suzuki Jimny billy cart

Mr Rosengarten said participants would get bonus points for being funny. Seriously! 

The event is open to amateur and professional teams who can design, build, and pilot their own gravity-powered racers along a downhill racetrack on Lansdowne Street in Melbourne’s CBD.

Organisers said the Red Bull Billy Cart Race “challenges the most fearless, fun-loving, and foolhardy teams to prototype and create the wackiest of rides and then race them down an obstacle course for their chance at glory in the nation’s most prestigious non motor racing event.”

This is the third event hosted in Australia following the Melbourne 2004- and Sydney 2015 Red Bull Billy Cart Races.

Since Red Bull’s first Billy Cart Race was held in Brussels in 2000, the brand has hosted over 40 races globally. 

Often referred to as the ‘Red Bull Soapbox’, these events have spanned from Australia to South Africa, from Helsinki to St. Louis, and from Jamaica to Italy.

Over the years, vehicles have ranged from realistic replicas to a giant corn on the cob. Other designs have included: a piano, a giant baby carriage, a rodeo clown, a jail cell, and the Golden Gate Bridge. So, an even bigger banana or a tinier Sydney Harbour Bridge is the limit!

Registrations should be made at www.redbull.com/billycartrace

Applications have opened and close at 11:59pm on August 14, 2022. To enter, submit your design, team name and team member names on the Red Bull Billy Cart Race website. 

The organisers will select 50 teams. Applicants will be notified on Monday August 22 if they have been selected. 

Teams then have until December 1 to build their cart and get it to the race-track in Melbourne.

By Neil Dowling