RaceMe: Singapore's Soap Box Derby Race Event by Mediacorp

Hello!
Here's MinuteManSG & Me at the Raceme event 2 Saturdays ago!


Photo credit: RaceMe Facebook Page

RACE ME is the biggest scale Soap Box Derby event in Singapore so far!
Last year they saw entries of close to 50 Soap Box Cars competing for the top prize of $1000.

The categories for this year consist of:
Open: For everyone
Corporate: For companies
Tertiary: For school students
Celebrity Race: For the celebrities & their fan club members!

Read about the categories and prizes here: http://raceme.sg/prizes

Just so you know, Soap Box Derby is a popular car race that officially started in America in 1934. The race was originally created for the youth but slowly developed into a race for everyone. The race involves gravity cars that are always unpowered, relying completely upon gravity to move.

Together with Michelle and Ruo Xuan, we caught amazing happenings at this year's Raceme 2013 since early morning at National University Of Singapore (NUS).

Raceme is not just simply a go-kart race. There were fringe activities, stage games, special guest appearances and more; an event for both the young and old. (I BELONG TO THE YOUNG :p)




Left to right: Me, Michelle, Ruo Xuan


What's the most HENG thing?
It's sunny yet not scorching hot.
Probably due to the rain which has been pouring for the past few days.

Not to mention, I was star-struck.
(Put this sentence on loop mode)

Most of the Mediacorp's artistes came down and supported the event.
#LikeFamilyGathering~

Here's a list of the celebrities who came:




The Soap Box Derby Race

Super long dolly camera to record down the kart race.
The corporate practice run had begun!




Even the little kids are warming up, having so much fun screaming at the top of their lungs at 11am.

HOW TO WIN?
Teams have to beat the fastest timing in order to win the race.
In addition, they can compete for the Best Dressed and Best Crash Award too!



Already saw a few crashes and I went 'OUCHHHH!" even though I wasn't the one in the kart.

The driver of this kart had a really BAD CRASH.
He fell forward, his kart turned upside down and he was bleeding when he emerged from his capsized kart.


"Are you ok are you ok?"


"Let's carry the kart that way, go."


This is what I called TEAM WORK!

Fringe Activities

Sign up for the play-card, complete the games and win home nice Goodie Bags; a carnival for all!










Ah Boy ah, you so scared for what. Uncle is holding you and you won't fall. 
Relax and play! 


I wanna play but i'm overaged~




I also want to take part in the race with my mini kart, beep-beep!
*EXTREMELY DETERMINED RACER LOOK*


Minuteman had a fair share on the games as well.



弟弟好像跟游戏很有仇。
The whole time I was so scared he'd aim the ball at me instead of the clown's face.





Stage games with celebrities:


Meet the Mediacorp Celebrities

This is probably the highlight of the event.
Everyone hopes to get a glimpse of their favourite stars up-close.

The stars were set to appear at different intervals.



As the celebrities approached one by one, I parked at the autography-corner to take pictures of them.
See if you can name them all!

















Here's shy Natacia Leong (Smith's niece) asking for Elizabeth Lee's autograph on her cup.
She's so adorable because as much as she's star-struck like me, she was afraid to ask for autographs and whenever the stars came close, she became so stiff!



Glad that she eventually opened up and Uncle Smith, you're really so awesome to bring your niece to find her idols! I'd love to have an uncle like you, who have backstage passes and bring me up close to my idols for photo-taking session & autographs, even though I'll FAINT big time and you have to fan me up like 1975689 times. HAHA.

I'm so thick-skinned can; here's me asking Natacia if I can have a piece of her notepad with my favourite STITCH printed on it!



Hey Natacia, we have the same surname - LEONG!!!


OLLIE from Okto, wheeee~!
I refuse to budge from the stage area because I LOVE OLLIE and he's on stage!

I stayed until Ollie completed his dance.







The happiest moment of my life, shyly asking for a photograph to be taken with our Zoe Tay Ah Jie~




I'm excited about the Celebrity race later but first, let's check out some of the karts, can see cannot touch!

Wacker wonderland: The drivers & crew were dressed as the characters of Wizard Of Oz.



Tow Truck:  Exterior made of wood, the driver's son sat behind him while he raced.




Wolverine: Won 2nd in the Tertiary Category
Wait. Is this a tricycle?




This kart is built from scratch.
The whole time I kept wondering how the driver is going to drive this kart.

Apparently I didn't manage to find out.






Ruston: The team was still stapling Egypt/desert/pyramid-related photographs to the kart.


Fass & Furious: This green dino with big yellow polkadot is cuteness over-dosed!


Turbo the snail: Remember the snail kart?
Let's fix it in time for the next race!












After five: Came in first in the OPEN category, congratulations!





Are you able to make out this kart design?
I spent 10minutes reading ALL the text written on this kart:





SO TRUE!

Manage to guess the idea of this kart-design yet?
Yes, it's a TOILET SEAT!






The driver is so cute to think of this.


He even created poop for the seat, just for laughs.
I asked him if the toilet seat will flap down and hit him, he said yeah but it's okay because he's wearing a full face helmet so it's not painful anyway. LOL.



Stinky… NOT!
They are made of Styrofoam~



Team Bonding & LOVE 

Do you still remember the kart which did a flip earlier in the morning?
I couldn't help but went up to the team to check with they were okies.



Here was what actually happened.
One of their team members managed to capture the whole process:


Photo credit: Absolook ID

Poor driver got a cut under his chin and some scratches on his arms.
But he's OKAY!


Photo credit: Absolook ID

Absolook ID is an interior design company.
The team consists of a group of like-minded friends and interior designers.


Photo credit: Absolook ID

The team Members are Lionel How, Aaron Poh , Adam Meng and Marcus Law
When I visited their booth, the team were back into action - trying to fix their ride.  I admire their positive attitude: Trying their best in the race despite the difficulties they face.









I decide to KPO a bit and help them glue back part of the board.






Is it done?
I think so.
BLEAH~


When I asked how they manage to build this kart, they showed me their 3D drawing:

Photo credit: Absolook ID

Looks just like it!



Absolook ID took 3 days to build the kart despite all individuals were busy with their tight schedule for their sales appointment.  Here are some behind-the-scenes shots:


Photo credit: Absolook ID


Photo credit: Absolook ID


Photo credit: Absolook ID

So what memorable experience did the team gained after participating in the Raceme Event?

Here's what they say:

"This is absolutely fun because we normally don’t do all the labour work. As interior designers, we'd give the 3D drawings to the carpenter and ask them to do exactly same as the pictures. This is the FIRST time we get to use all the big machines to cut the plywood and nail all the pieces together. 

The expressions when we started to use the machines to nail plywood/cutting it were memorable as we were all afraid we might get ourselves injured. 

One of the challenge we faced was when we first had our 3d drawings and the kart that we bought, we didn’t know how to make into that shape. So we simply boxed up the whole kart . It was after getting the frame done that we tried to do the appearance. Getting the team members together to make this kart was another challenge to us as we were all busy with our schedules. 

One other thing we remembered was when we were done making the kart and about to head home, a sudden huge downpour came and drenched us all. We were shivering in the middle of the night while waiting for a taxi. 

RaceMe is absolutely a joyful event which bonded us - the colleagues - together."

I agree.
Taking part in events like these definitely help to bond families and friends closer together.
We learn & grow together; find things to do otherwise life would be so boring.

My family often organises gatherings and we'd attend block parties together.
It's enjoyable as we get to know one another better.

Don't just meet during Chinese New Year.
#LastWarning

This is another of my favourite team - Vicious Cycles:


The kart raced through the track and obstacles without breaking a sweat!



Meet the driver, who's also a stunt-rider.





Now meet the team of boys - big and small but all equally playful!






Sitting in their rides make me feel like I'm very handsome.



They were invited to perform breath-taking stunts on their scramblers before the celebrity race - the first stunt-bikers in Singapore - while the celebrities are busy making their rounds to grade the karts.



Team Vicious Cycle came in first in the Corporate Category!








Preparing for the Celebrity Race!

Most of the celebrity karts were made by the fan club members and company.
Which means it's the first time the celebrities see their karts.



Standby everyone, the celebrity race starts now!






The motorbike stunts sprung into action:

Zoe Tay flags off the race at the starting line!



First up: Ann Kwok's kart made by her fans.





"GO!", says our Ah Jie.

The TAParazzi kart done by Toggle.Sg is probably the only kart which involves celebrities during the making. Jeffrey Xu was one of them.

Here's Yuan Shuai and Wei Lie posing with TAParazzi:





So  many eyes watching the road!



Left to right: Me, Jeffrey Xu(helmet), Yuan Shuai (Black top), Desmond Tan and Wei Lie.

Memoreel is Romeo's kart made with love by his Fan Club - The Juliet Club.
It came in FIRST in the Celebrity race!







The ice-cream cone kart named Flavours Of Suria came in second in the celebrity race.





Channel U's kart makes me feel like dancing, so disco-like:




Channel News Asia's kart is up next:


Coming up, Channel 8's kart featuring Tak Gor as the driver of the day!


Even the ride-off is so drama.
They prepared the whole crew with reflective boards, PA, boom mic set up~

Their crash was even more DRAMAtic and You HAVE TO watch the telecast!!!
Guaranteed to make you laugh like madness.
Everyone else who witnessed the crash did.
All the judges gave the crash FULL marks, 10 out of 10!

The team won the Best Crash prize!

I'm not going to spoil the fun here.
Go watch the telecast okies?


Catch the Telecast Of Raceme On
Channel 5: Friday 20th Sept 2013, 9pm - 9.30pm
Channel U: Sunday 22nd Sept 2013, 8.30pm - 9pm




Mata Mata Kart:





I absolutely like what Zheng Huan's fans did for his kart.
The photos pasted on it were so heart-warming.

Anyone can tell how much they LOVE him.








The judges panel:


Judges flashing up their score cards at the karts.
They were invited to judge for BEST CRASH.

"No Crash, No Marks," they commented, "If there's a zero, we'd have given it."



So once again, remember to catch the Telecast Of Raceme On

Channel 5: Friday 20th Sept 2013, 9pm - 9.30pm
Channel U: Sunday 22nd Sept 2013, 8.30pm - 9pm



See if you can spot me on TeeVee!



Thanks for reading!!! *flying kisses*
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