Teams

Gorillas N' Roses

Garage Headquarters: Cincinnati, OH

Driver: Joe Ragland

Mechanics: Joe Ragland, Brent Zellner, Dave Kumpf, Mike Loudermilk

Nuts and Bolts:

Performing at Red Bull Soapbox Cincinnati 2008 takes a certain amount of chutzpah. If your skit doesn’t cut it, you’ll hear it from the capacity crowd. Should your racer wipe out in turn one, you’ll be immortalized on video. And that’s to say nothing of the panel of judges critiquing your every move. If any group of humans were born to compete in such a pressurized environment, it’s the primates of Gorillas N’ Roses. “One of us,” says captain Joe Ragland without naming names, “streaked through a convent. Another one of us got sick in his boss’ driveway after the company Christmas party.” Joe tells us that while attending a Reds game, one member “caught a foul ball using his nachos, made the big screen and Marge Schott came down and signed the ball, cheese stains and all.”

While the prospect of strutting out onto Mount Adams in gorilla suits to the opening chords of “Welcome to the Jungle” might petrify lesser mortals, Joe and his troop are itching to knuckle-walk their way into the Red Bull Soapbox record books. “We will choreograph a dance routine including, but not limited to, dance, lip-syncing and air guitar,” Joe says. “I can’t promise pyrotechnics, but we’ve talked about it. Victory or flames!”