On a sweltering bank holiday Monday it was operation Soapbox for Abracs. In change of getting our car to the bottom was non other than Dan Lloyd TCR UK Champion! With up to 40 teams competing to be crowned The York Bid, Micklegate Soapbox Champions 2019 it was sure to be an exciting day!

Each team hurtled down the 6-meter ramp based near to the Micklegate Bar & rattled their way down the ancient cobbles towards Ouse Bridge, next came the big decision to jump or not to jump avoiding the 30cm jump incurred a 5 second penalty and although some teams chose to safely get their cars over the line Dan driving the Abracs car was never in doubt flying over the jump and careering to the finish line past the roaring crowd which was predicted to be around 20,000.

Each team did two runs, a morning run and an afternoon run, the 10 best timed teams would then run again for the Micklegate Soapbox crown, after heat one Abracs found themselves in 4th place heading for lunch with a level of optimism but knowing teams around them would look to make improvements for race 2.

The team got together and discussed race two tactics as we looked to shave a much time off as possible. In the end it was decided that we would add weight to the front of the vehicle to try and increase the speed on both the ramp and the cobbles as the road one again steepens, this did appear to work but on the flat slowed the car down more than previously costing possible precious seconds.

We had improved on our first time but post race discussions appeared to lean toward taking half of the added weight back off to improve on the flat while also hopefully keeping the increased speed on the steeper parts of the track.

However due to some good times around us we never had the chance to make those changes and push on, as we found ourselves ousted from the top 10 and down into 12th which proved to be our final position, a valiant effort on our first ever soapbox run especially when we only entered a few weeks prior to the race and found ourselves up against the clock to the get the car finished for the race. We will certainly look to enter again next year and with our knowledge gained this year hope to push for an even better finish.

We would also like to take the opportunity to thank Dan for taking time out of his busy race schedule to come and race for us, well be sure to give him a call again for next year!