As fans of watching the red bull soap box racing on tv with our children, I was excited to see the Guernsey Motor Festival were going to have their very own version with the Rubis Soap Box Racing on Sunday 10th July. Sounded awesome, track heading down the Bordage into Church square!

I was about to suggest we keep the date free to go and watch, as a family, when I had the brain wave that we enter! Given our business is thebestof Guernsey I soon had another light bulb moment... not only do we enter, but we build a replica pink “ThebestofGuernsey” bus!

The only role left to me, was to persuade my dad, master craftsman Max Gaudion, to build said bus! That and post on Facebook for someone to lend us a chassis and wheels. Oh, and a driver & passenger would be useful.

Surprisingly I managed (a) to persuade my Dad (an inventor at heart he was immediately up for the challenge) and (b) to borrow Finn Stonebridge’s go kart as our chassis! Even more surprisingly Rick was happy to volunteer as a driver, and given we were planning a bus we had to ask our friend Lee Murphy (Operations Manager at CT Plus) to get involved as passenger / “brakeman”. At this stage (perhaps not believing it would come to fruition) they happily signed up to the project.

We collected the go-kart, gave Dad a photo of the actual bus and left him to it. By the next day a trailer had been built to provide the length required, and attached to the go kart and brakes added etc.

In no time the bus took shape... Dad was in his element. A true perfectionist has meant a continual process of adapting the original “design” so it runs as smoothly as possible. Well as smoothly as a bus, with flexi sides made out of sheets of ply built on a go-kart with a trailer base, can possibly run! Oh, and we waited until the last minute to check the rules and advise it needed a floor and the peddles removed / out of use!!

We had a team of painters (our kids), added the branding and advertising as per the CT Plus version and we think the finished article is truly a sight to behold. I’m not sure we’ll have the fastest soapboax on the day, and we live in hope it doesn’t get stuck on the first ramp... but we are just a little bit proud of it.