Teams

The Winos

Garage Headquarters: Santa Cruz, CA

Driver: Ryan Cress

Mechanics: Andy Hardesty, John List, Joshua Lister

Nuts and Bolts:

Not just any old bum can win a Red Bull Soapbox Race, but a team of winos? That’s another story. Ryan Cress, 30, is operations manager for a winery; so his constant, overriding focus is on helping to produce super-premium Tuscan-style wines. But one fateful day, Ryan and his friend Andy Hardesty, a 44-year-old builder who lives and works in the Santa Cruz Mountains, began to consider the unexplored possibilities of wine barrels, and – despite the time pressures of harvest and crush – The Winos soapbox team was born.

Contributing to the effort are the similarly named John List, 29, and Joshua Lister, 31. John has an MFA in photography and studies law at Santa Clara, while Joshua is a painter; but all four of the teammates at one time or another have helped in the process of wine production and bottling. (“And drinking!” Ryan adds helpfully.) Each has something special to offer the soapbox project. For example, with his background in construction (and an impressive toolbox), Andy is lead builder, and the teammates take inspiration from the time he successfully made a convertible out of a 1972 Opel GT by cutting off the roof. Joshua has won a number of downhill mountain bike races, so he’s giving tips on strategy to the team’s driver, Ryan, who states with supreme confidence, “Everyone loves wine; therefore everyone will love our epic machine…and us. Of course we’re going to win!”