Wet and Wild Soap Box Derby

Last Sunday, 32 boys and girls revved their creative engines as part of the Eastern New England Soap Box Derby on Eastern Ave.

The event, in its second year, is part of a larger organization of racers called the All-American Soap Box Derby, founded in 1933, which caters to eight - 17-year-olds searching for an outlet to race without having their license with gravity based cars. Its only one of the 450 registered Soap Box races in the country. The two winners of this competition would have the opportunity for an expenses paid trip to the national finals in Akron, Ohio.

Kits were available for purchase of rental and the children could construct one of two types of cars: stock and superstock, which also represented the two divisions that the drivers could vie in.

Construction of cars required supervision by adults, and could take as little as three hours to make, according to the official Arlington Soap Box website.

It took Lisa Demont's husband a bit longer to help her neighbor's kid build a car. "It took my husband and the kids four evenings," she said while attentively watching the racers speed down Eastern Avenue by Robbins Farm Park. "My husband is a car freak and is really having fun."

Although the Demont's own seven-year-old son is too young to participate, he did spend the morning "running around thinking he's the head of the pit crew," according to Demont.

Demont and her husband arrived at 7:30 a.m. to support their racer. Check-in was 8:00 a.m. and the day was long. It was scheduled to go to  3:30 p.m., followed by an awards ceremony. But an early morning drizzle meant the trials did not start until  drizzle, causing racers to start their trial runs at 8:30AM in the rain. This didn't deter the 32 racers from showing up to competition.

Previous champions Jake Walsh and James "Jimbo" Doherty were also on hand last Sunday.

This year, Doherty had moved up to the superstock division, but Walsh encountered a set-back due to his previous year's win.

"They made me lose my first two races," a battle-weary Walsh said after his final race of the day, having been knocked out of competition. His mother, Beverly Walsh, sounded less downtrodden. "They're not allowed to go to Akron twice," she said, "and he knew that coming in."

Because the Soap Box Derby competition utilizes gravity based cars, entrants are weighed, and their cars are weighted in order to even out the playing field. Because of his past win, Walsh's car was denied weights, which did not prevent a win in a couple matches. "Imagine that," said Grandmother Dottie Dorian amazed by her grandson's performance, "he won without weights."

The competition featured a diverse group of students from the surrounding areas of Arlington, Medford, Winchester, and Hopkinton. The race also featured what Lisa Demont described as "a good mix of boys and girls" (though, she could be seen feverishly cheering on all girls that rushed by in their cars) – noting the significance of the gender-free nature of the competition.

Although the rain had cleared up in time for the start of the races, by 3 p.m. the weather began an ominous turn, as the clouds grew darker and increasing winds delayed races.

The volunteer ground crew fought to settle down scattered racing cones and fallen over time-measurement devices, which recorded each competitor's time as they crossed the finish lines (an important tool that when temporarily out of order forced several racers to a rematch).

Soon after races began again, rain began to drizzle as approaching thunder boomed increasingly louder with every minute. Inclement weather would, by 3:40 p.m., force founder of the Arlington Soap Box Derby, Cary Conrad, to postpone the final rounds of races by 30 minutes until he could determine the severity of the approaching storm, which only got worse by 4 p.m.

In order to determine the winners, officials went back to all the times and races that the children raced, which was easy since the two first-place winners never lost all day. In the stock division, Patrick Barnes, an 8-year-old from Hopkinton took first and the super stock racer was Arlington resident and Ottoson student 14-year-old Dan Brennan.