Red Bull makes its Pit Stop in Smelterville
The Red Bull Pit Stop Tour 2022 made its way to Smelterville to challenge locals at their pit stop skills.
Photo by CHANSE WATSON
SMELTERVILLE — Think you have what it takes to be on a professional racing pit crew? Locals and those passing by Walmart on Sunday got to try their hand at it — while also watching it done by the pros.
The Red Bull Pit Stop tour stopped by our neck of the woods to promote its new Netflix show “Formula 1: Drive to Survive.”
Formula One (F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars. An F1 season consists of a series of races, known as a Grand Prix, a race which takes place worldwide on either purpose-built circuits or sometimes racing on closed city streets.
Those who stopped by the Red Bull Pit Stop received a free can of the popular energy drink, but the main attraction was the pit stop challenge, where you could compete against the crew to test your pit stop skills for the chance to win the Ultimate Red Bull Racing Experience with an all-expense paid trip to a U.S. Grand Prix later this year in Travis County, Texas.
A typical F1 pit stop takes about 2 to 3 seconds to complete, with Red Bull Racing holding the current world record with a 1.82-second stop that was performed at the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix and the longest pit stop in F1 history lasting more than 43 hours as pit crew members struggled to dislodge a broken wheel that had gotten jammed.
Another attraction was the ability to play on the first portable racing cockpit, the Next Level Racing F-GT Lite — while playing the new EA Sports Formula One 2022 racing game which takes place in Miami and incorporates many of the iconic features from the Miami street circuit, including a challenging hairpin turn and incredible coastline views.
The Red Bull Pit Stop is traveling through the country to 300 different Walmart locations and multiple military bases.
For more information, visit https://www.redbull.com/us-en/projects/pit-stop-2022.