Soap Box Derby - Best Finish Yet!!!

This morning we showed up twenty minutes late at Salem's Bush Park for the Soap Box AA Rally race (the pits open at 7:30). We were only the third people there. Turnout for this race was a little bleak - there were 7 stock cars and 6 superstocks.

We have been working on driving STRAIGHT, and not making much progress. Everybody's advice is to loosen the steering because Alex appears to be overcompensating, so I've been going looser . . . and looser . . . and looser, all against Alex's protests. He wants it TIGHTER. A couple times, I've loosened it without telling him. This time, I tightened it a LOT. In fact, the steering cables, when plucked, sound like guitar strings. In addition, I set the toe-in at about zero.

Grandpa and Grandma Kennedy, Aunt Flossie and Uncle Bob, and Andy and Karen Rusten and their family were at the race (Andy and Karen are who gave us the Super Stock car in the garage - this is part of what inspired Alex to race).

Alex got a bye in the first round. The second round we were paired up against Cullen Tucker (who went on to win first place). Alex won the 2nd phase, but not enough for the Heat, so he went on to the consolation bracket. He was driving very good today - very straight, and not overcompensating too much. During the 2nd phase with Cullen, his car drifted to the outside (down the crown), and he held it there. All very good. I told Alex that, although he should TRY to keep the car going down the center of the track, if it drifts to the outside, that is okay . . . he should just keep it there, and not climb back up the crown to the center.

The third round we went up against Jarrit Youngers (who went on to win second place). Again, during the first phase, his car drifted down to the curb, and again, he won the phase . . . with an INCREDIBLE differential of 0.867 seconds! In order to win the phase, Jarrit would have to beat Alex in the second phase by MORE THAN 0.867 seconds - an almost unheard-of feat. I told Tiffany that this race was Alex's race to loose, meaning that the only way he could loose was if he messed up.

Just before the second phase, I told Alex that unless he made a mistake, he would win this Heat, and would get AT LEAST fourth place. I told him again that if the car drifts to the outside, he should just let it stay there just like he had been doing, and not climb back up to the center. He looked at me, seconds before starting the phase, and told me that ACTUALLY, he had been STEERING the car to the outside, just barely. I told him 'NOOOO!!!! Don't do that! Just drive straight!'. This second phase with Jarrit started out good - Alex drifted to the outside, then, about half-way down the track, HIT THE CURB!!!! The car bounced off the curb, then drifted back and forth across the center line as Alex struggled to regain control. Jarrit won this phase by the largest differential I have heard yet on Salem's track - just over 1 second. Alex hit the curb with Cullen Tucker's wheels on his car, and Cullen had just decorated them with felt pen, so there was a very good mark on the wheel where they had scraped the curb, shown in the photo below.

Alex went on to compete in a run-off for 5th and 6th place, against Hannah. He still had Cullen's wheels on his car for the first phase, so I explained to him that he WOULD loose this phase - the trick was to make sure that HE was faster on Cullen's wheels than Hannah would be. As predicted, he lost the first phase. For the last run of the day, I told him that he had been driving very good, and he should consider this last run to be practice for tomorrow. Again, he drove a very straight line, and beat Hannah by enough to take the Heat.

I had to let this last sentance soak in. By . . . enough . . . to . . . WIN THE HEAT!!! This is the first full heat that Alex has won!!! We are extremely excited.

Overall, Alex won 5th place. Because there were not enough competitors, he does not get full 5th place Rally points. Still . . . he drove very well today, he WON HIS FIRST HEAT EVER!!!!, and he got 5th place, his best finish ever. And if he had not hit that curb, I am convinced that he would have won AT LEAST fourth place. Pretty good.

Actually, at the end of the day, Alex raced three times . . . he lost to the first place car, he lost to the second place car, but (I am convinced) only because he hit the curb, and he beat another car.

I can't wait for tomorrow's race!