The 6th grade Girl Scout Cadette Troop 2596 from Sunbury, is building and racing a Soap Box Derby car in the Gravity Race Challenge on May 20. Races start at 8 a.m. at Derby Downs in Akron.
Some of the jobs they are doing for the Soap Box Derby are Photographers, Mechanical Engineers, Designers, Writers and the Driver. Everybody on the team helped build the car. They also broke off into groups to get the job done. They watched videos to learn how to build the car. It was important for the team to communicate while they built the car.
To get practice, the team went to the Marysville Soap Box Derby race. There were about 10 super stock cars.
“The first time I went down the ramp I was nervous. I tried not to think about it. I just kept my head down and the steering wheel straight” said team driver Simone Huff. The team mechanics had to change the wheels every race.
Troop 2596 came in Fourth Place.
On May 6, the troop raced in the Columbus Local Soap Box Derby at Big Run Park. They had three members from the team who drove cars. River and Skye Hamilton raced stock cars. Skye came in third and River came in 1st in the Stock Gravity Race Challenge division.
The troop’s super stock car raced by Simone placed fifth overall and second in the Super Stock Gravity Race Challenge division. The team also entered the optional public relations contests.
They earned First Place in the press release contest, first and second place in photo contests, and first place in the poster design contest.
Troop 2596 wants to thank their coaches for “steering” them in the right direction. They also want to thank their parents for encouraging them to build the car, as well as sponsors Big Walnut Apparel, Nationwide, Jim’s Auto Center, Forman Realtors, Rental Stop, Hi-Line and BAR1 Motorsports.
