Death Race 2005

"Violence, Violence, Violence...that's what America wants." Says the character Junior Bruce in the Roger Corman cult classic Death Race 2000. Well, it was a bloody day at the races as messengers and non-messengers gathered to compete in Deathrace 2005, an alley cat fun ride based loosely on the movie. The ride was hosted by Jason of 4916 a messenger clothing company. Jason all bloody, fake blood.
In this race, you had to enter as a team of 2 with one rider being the navigator as a tribute to the low budget flick of 1975, staring David Caradine and Sylvestor Stalone. Although unlike the film, the object was not to kill people for points which would probably slow down your bike considerably. The ride had 8 checkpoints with physical challenges and triva questions to answer.
riders waiting for the start.
I tried to do my best Junior impression, the obnoxious host of the movie. There is plans in the works to make a short video about this race.
there was a doctor on hand with his nurse copilot.
This messenger from LA was a bit out of his teritory but he picked up a 15 year old kid to show him his way around the city. This was by far the largest age gap of team members. The kid was also the youngest to compete in the alley cat. Turns out his father was a cycle messenger in the 70's and would take him to critical mass when he was 7. The youngest rider. Everyone gathered at the Brooklyn side of the Williamsburg bridge, in teams of 2 and in various costumes. Here they were given a t-shirt and a manifest with a list of the checkpoints which they could do in what ever order they saw fit.registrationchecking the mapteam Fans of Frankenstein, hoping that some vigins will sacrifice themselves to them for points.
Team teen wolf...who did well in the race and finished in the top 10. The tall guy didn't slow his teammate down, even though he flew over the hood of a taxi somewhere in midtown. The race took off around 4:30pm and many riders took the car path of the Williamsburg bridge for the fastest possible route into the first check point at 28th and 1st. Ave. Squid, keeping true to the spirit of the film had a female team mate and they leaped out in front pack, up the steep part of the bridge.Squid and Uri
Squid's partner cruisin up 1st Ave.After checkpoints in Manhattan, the racers crossed the 59th bridge and had to answer a triva question at the Long Island City side.Carlos, a team puma racer, was one of the winners overall, despite losing his partner. He completed the ride in about 50 minutes which is pretty damn fast to go from Brooklyn, through Manhattan and back into Queens. The official race results will be posted. It was a good day at the races. No old ladies were killed. In a side note, while checking the internet movie data base on deathrace 2000, it looks like they are in development of a 2006 remake. I know Sly Stalone is available.