W-H Soap Box Derby hosting classic car show
Proceeds from the classic car show on Saturday, May 13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Village Network, 2000 Noble Drive, Wooster, will go to the Wayne-Holmes Soap Box Derby. Admission is free, but a $10 donation is being asked for from entrants in the car show, who will compete for various prizes.
Soap Box Derby season is approaching, and one of the goals organizations that run area races always have is getting kids interested. Timothy Dever and the Wayne-Holmes Soap Box Derby have come up with a way to not only get kids excited, but adults as well.
The W-H Soap Box Derby, of which Dever is president, will host a classic car show on Saturday, May 13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Village Network, 2000 Noble Drive, Wooster. Adults will be able to look at the big cars, and kids will be able to drive the little ones.
“The show is going to be all makes and models and years, but it’s designed for the car collector, the hot rods,” Dever said. “They do shows all over the place. Wooster does a cruise-in every year where you can just drive in and see your hot rods and your classic cars.”
As part of the program, kids age 7 and up will be able to drive a Soap Box Derby car down an adjacent hill to give them a taste of what being in the derby is like. Dever said capturing kids’ interest is a challenge groups like his face, with kids having so many more choices than in years past.
“That’s the $64,000 question — what do kids like these days?” he said. “We are definitely competing with a new kind of kid, with the video games and competitive sports. Kids get into these sports leagues and traveling teams. Kids get committed to these sports year round. When I grew up, it wasn’t year-round stuff.”
Proceeds from the car show will go to the Wayne-Holmes Soap Box Derby. Admission is free, but a $10 donation is being asked for from entrants in the car show, who will compete for various prizes.
The day also will include a 50-50 raffle, door prizes and gift bags for the first 50 entrants. So everyone will have a chance to win something.
The big event of the day, though, will be kids getting a chance to pilot a car. The hope is to generate some interest and get more kids entered in the Wayne-Holmes local race, which will be held June 17.
Kids race in four divisions: Stock (age 4-7), Super Stock (9-20), Masters (10-20) and Super Kids (7 and up for kids with disabilities who need a co-driver). Winners of each division will qualify for the All-American Soap Box Derby, to be held July 16-22 at Akron’s Derby Downs.
“The track these kids would be going down is shortened,” Dever said. “It won’t be a full-scale racing track thing for them. In a real race, tracks are about 900 feet long down a hill. At the finish line, they can be going upward of 31-32 mph. It’s a little bit slower at Akron; that track flattens at the bottom. We train the kids before we actually send them down the hill — how to steer, how to stop. We cover everything before they get in the cars.”
Kids also will be able to vote in the car show, which will give out a Kids’ Choice award among the various trophies. Awards for the top 25 cars will be handed out, along with a Best in Show award.
Dever said his kids have been involved in the Soap Box Derby and enjoyed some of their best times and learned life lessons along the way.
“It taught my kids to lose before they started winning, which is something the other sports don’t seem to want to teach,” he said. “We want to get families together so they can see what our sport is and our kids can try it out and see if it is fun or exciting.”
For more information call or text Dever at 330-418-4347. Visit the Wayne-Holmes Soap Box Derby Facebook page.