Teams

The Valhalla Express

Garage Headquarters: Sudbury, MA

Driver: Chandler Moore

Mechanics: Jamie Merkle, John Germanotta, Shea Justice, Rick Wise, Scott Carpenter

Nuts and Bolts:

“Providence, hide your women and children. The Vikings are coming from the north,” warns Jamie Merkle of Team Valhalla. But these aren’t the Norsemen of old, coming to pillage and drink mead. These are the Vikings of Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, coming to drink in the thrills of Red Bull Soapbox Race. It’s a kind of Viking tribute. The team’s driver, Chandler Moore, is a senior, and all indications are that he’ll be graduating this spring. Meanwhile teammate Rick Wise is a teacher who will retire soon. “Chandler may get suspended if the team doesn’t return home with a trophy,” jokes Scott Carpenter, a school administrator. “And we want to send Rick off in a blaze of glory, or on crutches, as he test-pilots our soapbox.”

Like Wise, the remaining teammates – Merkle, John Germanotta, and Shea Justice – are faculty in the Fine, Applied, and Technical Arts Department. Borrowing themes from the 1958 Kirk Douglas movie “The Vikings,” they’re designing a “dragonship on wheels,” and, Carpenter laughs, “fighting over who gets to wear the eyepatch.” Many of the school’s 1,600 students will be coming from Massachusetts to cheer their team down Waterman Street; and for those who can’t make it, a video crew is documenting the effort.