• Five friends from Pella, Iowa, entered the Red Bull Soapbox race in Des Moines.
• Their car, the Clog Cruiser, is shaped like a Dutch clog.
• The race takes place at the Iowa State Capitol Grounds on May 31.

A couple of months ago, Treyton Turnbull didn’t even know what a soapbox race was.

That was until the incoming junior at Iowa State University was sent an advertisement for the May 31 Red Bull Soapbox Race in Des Moines in a group chat with his friends.

“I saw the ad for it on Instagram and I initially sent it to the group chat as a joke,” said Ryan Sales, an incoming sophomore at University of Northern Iowa. “Everyone agreed to do it, and I remember being in my dorm room filling out the application thinking there’s no way we’ll get in.”

“When we got the email saying we made it, I was so pumped for it,” Sales said.

What began as a joke has turned into five hometown friends becoming fully immersed in soapbox racing, studying past Red Bull competitions to see what succeeded as they crafted their cart.

Their team name Clog Fathers pays homage to the classic mob drama “The Godfather” while also drawing inspiration from the team’s hometown of Pella and its deep Dutch heritage.

“Growing up, we’d always go into town for Tulip Time, so we wanted to make our cart Dutch- or tulip-themed,” Turnbull said. “We thought about doing a windmill or corn because of Iowa, but we landed on a clog because we thought it would be fun to race down a hill in a giant shoe.”

Besides Turnbull and Sales, the group includes Donovan Helle, Nicolas Stanley and Kaiden Hol. Helle attends Central College, while Stanley and Hol are students at Des Moines Area Community College.

What will the Clog Fathers’ Red Bull Soapbox car look like?

The chassis of the cart comes from a four-wheeler and the outside frame will be in the shape of a clog that was pieced together from some spare metal scrap. The name of the cart is the Clog Cruiser.

“Going into this our expectations of what we were going to achieve were low, like we thought the car would look like a wreck,” Sales said. “But we’ve done a couple of test runs so far, and it’s actually come together a lot better than we were expecting.”

Besides some members taking a welding class in high school, Turnbull said none have an engineering background or any experience making a soapbox car.

“We’re kind of just figuring it out as we go,” Stanley said.

Turnbull said the team has invested more than $400 in constructing the Clog Cruiser. He said they have secured sponsorships from local businesses in Pella to offset some of the costs.

“We’re really scrounging around because I just got through freshman year of college, barely able to eat on finals week, so I can’t afford to fund a whole car,” Sales joked.

Turnbull will drive the cart with Stanley sitting behind him to distribute weight. As far as the team’s expectations for the Clog Cruiser, they’re keeping them relatively tempered.

“Our goal is just to make it to the finish line,” Stanley said. “We’re prepared to take a tumble or two if it means making it to the end.”

How to watch the Des Moines Red Bull Soapbox Race

The Red Bull Soapbox Race series premieres on Discovery. Each episode takes place in a different city. Des Moines is among six cities for the 2025 tour, including London and Madrid. Full episodes can be viewed via Discovery’s YouTube channel.

Where is the 2025 Red Bull Soap Box Car Race in Des Moines?

The Red Bull Soapbox Car Race is at the Iowa State Capitol grounds in Des Moines, located on East Walnut Street.

The event starts at noon May 31 and is free for spectators. The top three teams will receive trophies and prizes.

Cooper Worth is a service/trending reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at cworth@gannett.com or follow him on X @CooperAWorth.