Red Bull arranges a competition between rally cars and runners

The Red Bull team conducted a rather interesting race in Sweden earlier this week, putting a rally-prepped Peugeot car up against a team of four local sprinters. The runners only had their legs to rely upon, but their track was only half as long.

The car was piloted by WRC participants Kevin Hansen and Tommy Hansen. They went up against Max Palm the skier, Patrick Nilsson the triathlete, Martin Söderström the mountain biker, and Micaela Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky the racing driver. To summarize, it was two professional rally racers versus four non-professional runners.

Two laps were designed for the competition: an 800-meter (roughly half-mile) exterior loop for the car and a 400-meter (quarter-mile) loop inside it for the runners. The organizers explained that they conducted some research and found this arrangement the most fair and competitive.

The athletes ran a relay race of sorts – one loop each – while the drivers replaced one another every four loops. The hatchback was tuned to 600 PS (593 hp / 441 kW) and had the all-wheel-drive advantage, which enables it to launch itself 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in around two seconds. According to the drivers, the only why they could lose was if they spent too long replacing each other. The actual race, however, proved surprisingly tight and went on for 5 minutes 12 seconds.

Red Bull dedicated the event to its upcoming event called Wings for Life, a worldwide charity marathon the racing team is spearheading to raise funds for in-depth research of spinal injuries and their treatment.