Soap Box Derby winners celebrate

    HOULTON, Maine – The Northern Maine Soap Box Derby drew 51 participants in its double elimination race last Saturday on Derby Hill in Houlton Community Park. The winners are now preparing for their trip to the All-American Race in Akron, Ohio on July 21-26.
In the stock division, Sara Heath, daughter of Joel and Sue Heath of Houlton, ‘Wow’ed the crowd, as she was winner of winners – WOW — by not losing a race the entire day. She went on to defeat veteran racer Jeramie Ledger in the championship round.
“It’s exciting,” Heath said of being the local derby winner. “I’m very happy.”
Heath is so thrilled by her win that she left her flag and trophy sitting on the table near the entrance to her house.
Though Heath has been rally racing for a couple of years, winning the local race is icing on the cake.
“I didn’t think I would win the race,” she said. “If I lost, it was OK, but I really wanted to win. It was scary.”
“I wanted to get low enough so I could see,” she said of her position in the car, “and I just kept thinking positive.”
During her championship heat against Ledger, nerves set in on the young driver.
“I was nervous,” she admitted. “My hands were shaking.”
However, after her name was announced as the winner, she was greeted with big hugs from her friends and then she sought out her father and jumped into his arms in the excitement of the whole win.
“I just can’t believe it,” Heath said of her journey to Akron. “I wanted to see what another state looked like and to ride in an airplane.”
As a newcomer to the All-American Race, Heath hasn’t set too many goals, but the ones she has are very attainable.
“I want to think positive and do just what I did in this race,” she said. “I want to have fun and meet new friends.”
Heath’s car is sponsored by Barry Lorom Trucking, Inc. and Little Tree School.
And, in the super stock division, it was Lucas Grant, son of Wesley and Monique Grant of Houlton, winning the championship for the second year in row. Last year, Grant was the stock division champion and participated in Akron.
“It feels great,” he said. “It’s double the feeling of just winning once.”
Pressure mounted on Grant’s shoulders as he hit the loser’s bracket of the double elimination race midway through the day.
“I knew I could make it through and go for the top positions,” Grant said. “So, I wasn’t too upset.”
Grant did make his way through the loser’s bracket, knocking off opponent after opponent to challenge for the title.
However, when Grant hit the final heat of the race, he knew he had his work cut out for him, facing a very tough Alishia Ledger for the championship. Ledger was very impressive all day, as she also ‘Wow”ed the spectators on hand at Derby Hill. She had not been beaten throughout the day, and Grant would have to overtake her twice.
“Well you knew you had to stop shaking because if you kept shaking you were either going to screw up the steering or just scare yourself to death and not do good because you had to relax in your car,” Grant said.
All day, Grant’s strategy was to stay low in his car and close to the cones. He stayed with his plan, but a battle ensued on the hill.
In the A phase of the final heat, Ledger took a slim .007 win from Grant, while in the B phase, Grant came back for a .196 win over Ledger, forcing a tiebreaker. Coming down the hill, tensions were high and both racers’ cars came to stop, as they waited anxiously for the winner to be announced.
“In other races and rallies, I haven’t had very good luck of beating people twice,” Grant said. “So, when I beat her, I didn’t know what to think …  it was just kind of weird that I beat her twice.”
Going into Saturday’s derby, Grant had been faced with a conflict, as his Little League baseball team was also playing for the championship that day, too.
“It was very hard,” explained Grant. “I thought about it the whole week once we found out that the game was going to be on Saturday. I made the decision that I was going to race because my grandfather was coming down and he had put so much money and time into helping me race, so I figured I would just do that.”
And after hugging his mother and father, his grandfather Bob Marquis and his grandmother of Fort Kent,  who sponsor his car, got a big smile and squeeze from their energized grandson.
Last year, Grant went to Akron with the goal of getting past round one. This year, his goal is to get past round two.
“And, to go faster,” he added.
As a veteran of the All-American Race, Grant goes with a little more knowledge this year.
“You need to tighten your torques and maybe shift your weights in the car a little bit to get it to fit to the way Akron runs,” said Grant.
But in retrospect as he sat on the hill at the Just For Kids playground on Monday, Grant was still awed.
“I never thought I would do it back-to-back,” he said. “Winning it back-to-back is just like winning the World Series twice in a row.”