Children race cars in Soap Lake

SOAP LAKE - Soap box cars glittered in the sun as drivers, parents and volunteers prepared to race.

They were gathered for the second annual Soap Lake Soap Box Derby Saturday.

The event was set up by Boy Scouts in Soap Lake. Drivers prepared to take the vehicles down Main Avenue, possibly reaching speeds of 30 mph.

June Penfield waited on the sidewalk near the cars. Her daughter, Clare, was one of drivers in last year's race, and was asked to participate again this year. June said they had moved to Yakima, but had heard about the race from friends in the city.

"(I like) the sense of community, that everybody is volunteering," June said. "We really gave that up when we moved to Yakima. We miss that ... Soap Lake is a good community."

They were waiting for the car Clare would be driving, a white car painted with a Lions Club logo. Last year, she was able to practice, but this year she wasn't able to.

"She did really well last year," June said. "She practiced a lot. (This year,) she was all like, 'I really want to practice.'"

After Clare's car arrives, she is waiting nearby as volunteers weigh it and her to determine how much weight needs to be added. She said wanted to drive down the hill on Main Avenue.

"I always wanted a go-cart, but this is close enough," she said. "It's pretty fun. It's easy. The steering is really easy too. You just sit in it and you have the breaks and then you have steering."

Nearby, Michael Pevehouse helps carry the cars to the scales. He points out one of the cars, built from trash cans. It's in the "oil can" class, meaning it was a home built or an expired car, rather than coming from a new official kit. C.W. Forrest had the idea and built the car.

"C.W. had this thing, he wanted to make a car out of a garbage can," Pevehouse said. "Then all of the sudden he talked to Dave down at John's Foods, he was our sponsor. He got the cans home. We started coming up with plans. Next thing I know we cut the board, started just putting stuff together."

The trash cans were bolted and riveted together. The rest of the items, such as the wheels and steering were the same as the regular cars, except for the body. It took about two weeks to put it together, Pevehouse said.

"We just kept putting stuff on it, until it came out looking like this," Pevehouse said.  Pointing at the tin cans with reflectors inside, he added. "Then all the neighbors got involved and donated the lenses. The chief of police, who is running this, he thought, 'Well, let's put some headlights on it."

Forrest dressed in a clown suit and tossed candy to children sitting along the side of the road waiting for the racing to start. Pevehouse also donned the suit last year.

"We had it at the high school last year because he was graduating. They wanted it at the arts and crafts show," Pevehouse said.

Jim Dorris, the derby's director, stood near the finish line as first time drivers tested their skills in the cars. He said the race drew 23 cars this year.

"The majority of the cars are all official derby cars," he said. "We've got a couple of vintage cars racing in it this year. We've got the 1969 National Champion car. We've got one from 1983 that won at state."

The sanctioned cars need to be built by the driver, Dorris said. They come as a kit, with the floor board, shell and the hardware included.

"The kids have to build the cars themselves," he said. "It takes on average, without having any previous knowledge - you can build a car pretty easily within a weekend. The scouts have built 11 cars themselves so far, and they've got it down to about two hours."

Each of the classes of car has a maximum weight requirement. The stock cars need to weigh 230 pounds with the drivers, the super stocks need to weigh 240 pounds and the master cars weigh 250 pounds.

"We've got scales set up at the top of the hills so we put the driver in the car and see what they weigh out to and then add the weights."

The event started as a community involvement project for the Boy Scouts, Dorris said. The group settled on starting the derby.

"They ended up committing three years to the project and the whole goal is to get national sanctioning and make Soap Lake a derby city," he said. "Derbies have all but disappeared from Eastern Washington and we're kind of hoping to bring it back."

Dorris said anyone interested in helping with the derby in future years can contact him through soaplakederby@ifiber.tv.

"We're more than happy to help them out anyway that we can," he said.