Teams

Rockbiter Lives

Garage Headquarters: Chicago, IL

Driver: Nolan Libunao

Mechanics: Schawn Spreadbury, Matt Offord, Jonathan Stawicki, Andy Finnegan

Nuts and Bolts:

Andy Finnigan, Nolan Libunao, Matt Offord, Schawn Spreadbury, and Jonathan Stawicki were once classmates at Amos Alonzo Stagg High School in Palos Hills, Illinois, and their friendship seems to be a never-ending story. They're all 23 years old, and Offord is now a teacher himself (at Reavis High School in Burbank, Illinois); yet they're still doing crazy stuff like entering soapbox races – the Red Bull Soapbox Race in Providence, to be precise.

Their entry's theme is an enduring one, too: the teammates were inspired by the fantastical movie "The Neverending Story." They're dressing their driver in a foam-rubber and papier-mâché costume to impersonate the film's Rockbiter character – a man made of stone. The quintet is working with a choreographer to put together a dance routine, which they'll perform to the strains of a power ballad compilation, and they promise to "amaze, astonish, astound, dumbfound, and flabbergast the crowd with a tour de force of high-octane theatrics, precision pit crewmanship, and white-knuckle driving." Their only weak point may be vehicle construction: none of the teammates has ever built a soapbox racer before. Nonetheless the team captain, Libunao, sees cause for optimism. He shrugs, "You can say that we're putting a lot of faith in beginner's luck!"