While attending Solana's Stockholm Hacker House in August of this year, Diego and I (Ryan) stumbled across a soap box race sponsored by Red Bull. Competitors raced their homemade non-motorized vehicles down a slope in Södermalm. It was hilarious, ridiculous, and right up our alley.

We immediately thought:

“What about a race at Breakpoint?”

We'll have the ecosystem projects compete with each other, some of the top founders in the ecosystem racing their sponsored cars, and we'll invite all Breakpoint attendees and the public to be a part of it.

“Sounds awesome. But Breakpoint is in two months. I'm not quite sure we'll have the time to do it,” advised Diego.

Two months is a very tight timeline, but we were able to pull it off. With our pals at Brownys in the Netherlands, we bought go-karts, searched for location in Lisbon, and started contacting sponsors within a few days of first thinking of the idea.

After shuffling through our network, we were fortunate enough to find a connection to the Portuguese government, specifically the mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Manuel Félix Moedas. He helped us contact the owner — Telpark — of a large parking garage directly beneath the heart of the city, and after weeks of back and forth, we finally secured the space.

Brownys was hard at work modeling and rendering the space to figure out how the race would be built, and in such a short time (we'd only have a few days before the actual event to put anything in the space.) They did an excellent job. Below are a few of the original renders they shared with us:

Along the way, we'd finally figured out a name for the event, with a bit of wordplay on the word “Rally”.

And Eliz Akgün, our brand designer, was hard at work sketching the identity, website, and brand assets for the race.

The Race

We'll skip many of the details that went into making the race happen, and instead share some of our favorite photos throughout the buildup to the event, and actual race day.

We're so proud of the outcome, and so grateful to have done this with so many partners and sponsors in the space.

Before the event, a healthy dose of Twitter trash talk got us itching to get behind the wheel.

Over a thousand builders came to see their favorite projects take over the track.

Racers whipped past the plastic barricades, overtook their opponents, and tried to take the lead.

The spirit of competition and community was electric.

Even those who couldn’t make it to the race could watch the rivalry from home. We streamed the entire event on Twitch, a recording of which will soon be available for anyone who wants to see Joe McCann, founder of Asymmetric, and Diego Segura, co-founder of NATION, bless the stream with their southern-tinged banter.

When the race reached its final round, all eyes were glued to the track.

Mixmob won first place, Mixmob (their other car) won second, and Solana Spaces won third — immediately popping open bottles of champagne to signify their victories.

When the excitement had settled, we were left with a surplus of gratitude for everyone who came to race, everyone who helped us make the race possible, and everyone who loved this event as much as we did.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

To the Brownys team — Julian Portier, Nick Bruynesteijn, Bram van Beek, Ramon Poortman, Amber Bonkenburg, Jaimy Kinkel, and Yannik Siebert.

Without you, this race would have remained a random, ridiculous idea incapable of hitting the ground. You pieced together the details and kept us on track — even when we were down to the wire.

To our sponsors and race participants:

Car 1, driven by Nick Scantz, sponsored by Degen Ape Academy.

Car 2, driven by GroveSt, sponsored by Degen Ape Academy.

Car 3, driven by Eddie Delahunty, sponsored by Degen Trash Pandas.

Car 4, driven by Christian Cuffari, sponsored by Otter Security.

Car 5, driven by Nico Grundel, sponsored by Neodyme.

Car 6, driven by Girogi, sponsored by Symmetry.

Car 7, driven by Brock Whitten, sponsored by Asymmetric.

Car 8, driven by Chris McCann, sponsored by Race Capital.

Car 9, driven by Legocactus, sponsored by Solend.

Car 10, driven by Nika Oniani, sponsored by Defi Land.

Car 11, driven by Nika Losaberidze, sponsored by Defi Land.

Car 12, driven by ghost.the.sammie, sponsored by Samoyed Coin.

Car 13, driven by Wazza, sponsored by Samoyed Coin.

Car 14, driven by Chris Herminda, sponsored by Notifi.

Car 15, driven by MJ, sponsored by Notifi.

Car 16, driven by Seb, sponsored by Hedge.

Car 17, driven by Low Yee Yen, sponsored by Switchboard.

Car 18, driven by Jiannis Chatziveroglou, sponsored by Fractal.

Car 19, driven by Giannis, sponsored by Cardinal.

Car 20, driven by Nick Feeney, sponsored by Backpack.

Car 21, driven by Zano Sherwani, sponsored by Jito.

Car 22, driven by Ryan Smith, sponsored by Jito.

Car 23, driven by Syeed Padrej,  sponsored by Pyth.

Car 24, driven by Mark Tillement, sponsored by Pyth.

Car 25, driven by Vivian Dao, sponsored by FastAF.

Car 26, driven by Jennifer Kaehns, sponsored by Clockwork.

Car 27, driven by Deni, sponsored by Squads.

Car 28, driven by Andre Nabias, sponsored by MixMob.

Car 29, driven by Miguel Nabias, sponsored by MixMob.

Car 30, driven by Xavier Ledieu, sponsored by Alpha Racing League.

Car 31, driven by Andrew Hyde, sponsored by NATION.

Car 32, driven by Alfred Chuang, sponsored by Race Capital.

Car 33, driven by Car Pavlo Velykyi, sponsored by Allbridge.

Car 34, driven by Vajresh Balaji, sponsored by Hotline.

Car 35, sponsored by Somewhere Street.

Car 36, driven by Kyle E, sponsored by Holaplex.

Car 37, driven by Marcel George Keane Serd, sponsored by Hivemapper.

Car 38, driven by Farrah Moahtari, sponsored by Hivemapper.

Car 39, driven by Francisco Abreu, sponsored by Solana Spaces.

Car 40, driven by Paul Bohm, sponsored by Teleport.

Car 41, driven by Deon Fourie, sponsored by Thugbirdz.

Car 42, driven by Joe Caulfield, sponsored by the Solana Foundation.

Car 43, driven by Joe C, sponsored by the Solana Foundation.

And to those who did not race, but still sponsored: Hotline, Code Corgi, Caw Studio and Superlayer.

Thank you all for believing in The Bear Market Rally from the very beginning. Your support was the foundation for this entire event. You were the life of the party. The energy and enthusiasm you brought to the track made everything worth watching.