Teams

THE POPE MOBILE

Garage Headquarters: Washington University in St. Louis, MO

Driver: Matt Schweiker

Mechanics: Jason Anderson, Matt Denny, Tommy Pizzini, Todd Schiller

Nuts and Bolts:

What does it take to win a gravity-powered soapbox race? Skill? Washington University sophomores Jason Anderson, Matt Denny, Tommy Pizzini, Todd Schiller, and Matt Schweiker are engineering students with the skills to build a real contender. How about cojones? Given that Denny and Anderson are DJs for the university radio station, and all five are caricatured in Anderson's cartoon strip for the campus paper, they've definitely got the cojones to put their reputations on the line in public. Yet despite these obvious attributes, the St. Louis crew is looking for something more to give them an edge. You might call it divine intervention, because this team is racing The Popemobile.

Sure, The Popemobile looks slow. It was originally designed to kindle the holy spirit, not to burn rubber. But after these guys are done souping it up, this baby will fly faster than an archangel. Although the students confess that the purgatory of construction is challenging, by using basic materials like steel tubing and plywood – plus as many religious artifacts as the cardinal rules will allow – they are achieving a transubstantiation that is nothing short of miraculous. Schweiker, the team driver, grows incensed at the suggestion that any other entry will take the win when judgment is meted out on October 28. Shaking his staff in warning, he pontificates, "We're on a mission from God!"