Kids as young as 7 years old were driving some unusual cars down Frontenac Road just south of Diehl Road Saturday, as the Greater Chicago Soap Box Derby Association held its first races of the season in an industrial area of Naperville.
“It’s very family oriented, something our culture is losing,” said Leslee Butler, whose 8-year-old son, Logan Sennholtz-Linder, is a nationally-ranked Soap Box Derby racer. “It’s not something you drop your kid off at a baseball field and pick him up in three hours,” Butler said.
She said 22 racers along with their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, friends and even pets came to Naperville from as far away as Kentucky for the two-day event featuring dozens of heats. It continues Sunday.
“Our race director opens his home to out-of-town visitors, so they don’t have to pay for hotels,” Butler said.
She said Naperville shuts down Frontenac Road to accommodate the 900-foot track, and Inplex allows them to use their parking lot as a pit area on Saturday and Sunday.
“We come here because it’s a location that supports the derby. The business allows us to have a shed where we store equipment (year-round). Trailers stay during the season,” she said.
The Soap Box Derby races exude more of a spirit of cooperation than competition, with spectators cheering on all the racers. Throughout the day, parents helped each other load the cars onto trailers and transport them from the finish line back up to the start line after each heat.
“I loved it. It was a community,” said Megan Fischer, who drove from Gilberts with her infant and toddler to join four other relatives supporting her nephew, 8-year-old Milo Murphy, in his first race.
“We were a racing family back in the ’90s. This is the second generation. My sister (Milo’s mom) and I used to race. My parents used to run locals and rallies. We were very invested. You got to see everyone on the weekend — from Wisconsin, Chicago, downstate Illinois. They became your friend group,” recalled Fischer.
As a child and teenager, Fischer raced for seven years and competed at the All-American Soap Box Derby World Championship Race, held each July in Akron, Ohio, since 1935. “That’s a big deal. These are just rallies to get points,” explained Fischer.
Butler said racers earn at least one point for competing and up to 40 points for winning, per race in their division – stock (for smaller kids), super stock (for bigger kids) or masters (for kids who lie in the car with only their eyes peeking out under their helmet).
She said racers qualify for the world championship by earning the most rally points in a region or winning their division in one of many local races held in June across the country. They can also earn trophies or medals for each rally race.
Butler said all racers ride in wooden or fiberglass cars with no engines that must be built from a standardized kit, to ensure parity.
“We work on it together. It’s a good father-daughter thing,” said Russ Mills, whose 18-year-old daughter, Abby Mills, is an engineering major at Purdue University. “Her first year she went to Akron. That hooked us,” added Mills, who traveled to the weekend event from West Lafayette, Ind.
“I’ve been there (to the world championship) three times,” noted Abby Mills, currently ranked sixth in the world in the local masters division and first in the international division. “I started at 10 years old. It’s a lot of good teamwork. My parents and I go to a lot of races and work on it together.”
“My master car was built like you’d build a sailboat,” recalled Megan Fisher. “I had a good builder. My dad and I built cars together. We built mine from wood. It took the winter to build. All cars (have to) weigh the same amount with drivers in them. Mine was called the lead sled because I was tiny and the car was heavy,” added Fischer with a laugh.
Butler said the car kits start at $465, and rallies cost $10 to $35 per race to enter. Fischer said new rules allow racers to use a car built by someone else.
“Milo is borrowing a car. It’s nice they allow kids to do that to get interested in the sport,” Fischer said. “You want to be sure a kid likes it before you build a car.”
Diane Moca is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun
