Words: Michael Tedder
Photography: Kyle Lieberman

If you grew up anytime from the ’80s onward, there’s a good chance that a plucky plumber, his blue suspenders and eternal vigilance against nefarious turtles, played a big part in your childhood. Whether disappearing into pipes or speeding around race tracks, the video game adventures of the magical mustachioed plumber brothers tended to be great gifts for kids looking to while away the afternoon.

The immersive event company Viral Ventures unveiled Mushroom Rally, bringing the action of Mario’s beloved racing game to the real world with help from some of America’s finest go kart and in-door racing parks. The Mushroom Rally allows fans to ride around in courses tricked out with floating bricks, question mark boxes, and inflatable castles, as well as costumed referees imploring riders to “slow down and use breaks”. (No word on whether there were any coins in the question boxes, though.)

Steve Ortiz’s girlfriend had surprised him and his friend (and the Luigi to his Mario, that day) Joshua Clarke with tickets to the Mushroom Rally. He’d just won a race against his friends, a feeling he described by quoting his favorite plumber: “whoo!” As far as his winning strategy, he was all about minding the curves. “I would slow down whenever we went through the tight turns, but for the wide turns, you just pump up the gas and go.”

Clarke and the Mario go way back. “I’m from the ’80s, man,” he says. “Mario was everything.” That said, he’d just returned from taking a licking in his latest race. “Unfortunately,” he concedes. “I thought I was crushing it, and then I looked at the board and my name was in fourth! I was like, ‘what?’”

Viral Ventures launched the first Mushroom Rally earlier this year in Los Angeles. After hitting 10 different cities, the event raced into Jersey City, New Jersey’s RPM Raceway this October for the event’s first appearance in the New York area. “We wanted to make a fun go karting experience for all ages,” says Event Manager Jason Young. “We were inspired by our own desire to participate in an immersive go-karting experience.”


As a DJ played hip-hop hits from Cardi B and DJ Khaled while mini-pizzas and energy drinks beckoned, some riders went to a changing room to pick from Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Kong, Princess Peach, and Bowser costumes, though one gentleman brought a homemade Wario costume to the proceedings. Players arrived in groups, kicking back on a weekend while reliving their latchkey days and adding some primary colors to their Instagram accounts. “People have been having a great time, they want to feel like a kid again,” says Young, while adding that “others are extremely competitive and in it to go to Vegas,” for a final match that takes place in Las Vegas on December 7th to determine the “Ultimate Mushroom Rally Champion 2019.”

Turns out, Mario still makes a great gift for big kids at heart. Elly Blanco-Roye, 39, got tickets for the Rally as a birthday gift to her husband, Russell Roye, 43, after reading about the event on Facebook. She says the two still play Mario games at home, even if she is ultimately more of a Zelda fan. As far as her decision to dress as Luigi even though he’s not her favorite character, she says that of her available sartorial options, “this is the one I liked the most. I didn’t want to be the Princess. That’s too typical.”

They were still waiting on their final scores, but neither were being too competitive about what was ultimately Russell’s gift.  After all, the couple that plays together, stays together.

Interested in hitting the petal to the metal at Mushroom Rally? Follow Mushroom Rally on Eventbrite to see when a race will hit your city.