Potter and Swift racers thrill Ally Pally crowd

Harry Potter, The Simpsons and Taylor Swift helped inspire the makers of wacky homemade soapboxes that raced at London's Alexandra Palace.

Red Bull's Soapbox Race returned to the UK for the first time in two years and challenged teams to prototype and create the wackiest contraptions, which relied solely on gravity to navigate a downhill course.

Thousands of spectators watched as 59 teams hurtled down the 420m course on Saturday.

The Hurry Houdinis, from London, were crowned this year's winners and said "a lifetime of preparation" had gone into the race, and it felt "electric" to win.

This year, soapbox designs included ones that were inspired by the Harry Potter Knight Bus and The Simpsons' sofa plus racing video game series Mario Kart and TV drama Peaky Blinders.

Participants were judged on creativity, speed and showmanship.

Some teams did not make it to the finish line - with soapboxes including Swifty Air, inspired by Taylor Swift, tumbling into the haybales.

The Every Can Counts team, who designed a "recycling truck" soapbox called "Chitty Chitty Can Can", said they were "ecstatic" with a third-placed finish, having placed 27th last time.

Tom Giddings, 35, Chris Latham-Warde, 33, Paul Bacon, 51, Lee Cox, 58, and Phoebe Kelly, 25, hoped to raise awareness of recycling with their vehicle.

They joked that their soapbox ended up reaching speeds of "just under 1,000 miles an hour", creating a "sonic boom" on the course.

Red Bull has held more than 100 soapbox races around the world since the original event in Brussels in 2000.

When the UK last hosted the event in 2022, 20,000 spectators saw designs inspired by Colin the Caterpillar, James Bond and Top Gun.

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