COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT: 11-year-old heads to soap box championships

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Eleven-year-old Adam will compete Saturday, July 26, in the fabled All-American Soap Box Derby World Championships in what will be only the third Soap Box competition of his career.

He is, however, a four-year veteran of the Mount Baker Race Team, and uses his ability to make quick mental and physical adjustments in a lane.

Adam, who has been in Akron since Sunday, July 20, will be competing with more than 200 other youngsters in the Stock Division, one of three classes and the division in which mostly 12-and-under boys and girls race. He is representing the Mount Vernon Firefighters' Local 1983.

"I had never raced Soap Box until last year," said Adam, who will be a sixth grader at Kulshan Middle School. "But my mother told me about a car that was available from the Mount Vernon Fire Department, and it seemed like it would be cool."

He didn't get any argument from his father or his mother, Erica, who is the fire prevention specialist and public information officer for the Mount Vernon Fire Department. And he'll have another fan along in his sister, 15-year-old ski racing standout Allison.

Adam, a calm sort who loves to play poker, turned out to be the one with a cool hand style during his first race last September on the Mount Vernon course. The course begins on the high, curved Second Street overpass over Interstate 5 and ends on a flat section of Second Street.

"I finished third in my first competition last September and then I won the next competition in May," Adam said. "That's how I qualified for the All-American Soap Box Derby."

Was he surprised?

"I was definitely surprised," said Adam, who also loves soccer and mountain biking. "But I began to realize that it was a lot like ski racing. You're reacting to the quick changes you need to make in a lane."

Adam beat Mount Vernon's Paige Gear in the May 18 Washington Alder race finals by four one-thousands of a second over two runs down Second Street, during which his car reached speeds of about 30 miles per hour on a course about 400 yards long.

"That's about two inches at 30 miles per hour," said Steve Work, who saw Adam work his way into the finals out of the consolation bracket following an early crash.

"It's not dangerous," said Adam, who noted that at 105 pounds and about 5-foot-4, he is not small for a Soap Box racer. The total weight of car and driver is 200 pounds, and cars are made of plastic and plywood.

"I have some trouble getting in the car," said Adam, "and that's an important part of the race, how you fold yourself into the car."

Steve had no Soap Box Derby background until Adam took up the sport, so he was especially proud of how Adam adjusted to the demanding course, especially after his only loss of the day in the double-elimination event.

"I was thrilled for him in May," Steve said. "As the day wore on and Adam kept winning, I was sitting back and grinning because about halfway through it all, Adam turned to me and said, 'It's OK, Dad, I've got it.'

"What he meant was that he understood the mechanics and decisions he had to make. At that point I just relaxed, because Adam had it figured out," his father said.

"It can be a little mentally exhausting," said Adam. "There's a lot of tension and everything goes so fast in a small period. But it's not really scary. The trick is just to be as smooth as a you can be. You actually have more control in skiing."

Adam beat out 23 others for the right to go to Akron, which hosts 500 Soap Box national qualifiers in three divisions. The others are Super Stock (mostly middle school kids) and Masters (younger high school students).

"Mike Bourgeois (a local 1983 firefighter) helped me with the car," Adam said. "It was originally driven by his daughter, Megan, after it was built for the May 2007 qualifying race."

In Soap Box Derby racing, in which cars are powered only by gravity, about half the field is girls, Adam said.

"We're getting financial support for our trip from Washington Alder (a timber company), Mount Vernon Parks and the Mount Vernon Fire Department," said Steve, who figures the family's money will be well spent on this "vacation."

Adam will have quite a "how I spent my summer vacation" topic for school.

"Just the spectacle of it all and the thousands of people who will be watching will make it quite an experience," Steve said. "We'll learn a lot of the details of what's going on when we're racing on Saturday."

The car Adam will drive, which was shipped early to Akron, will be retired for display in the Mount Vernon Fire Department's Museum as the first Mount Vernon vehicle to qualify for the nationals.

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