Results are in – good time and competition win at McHenry Soap Box Derby

Makayla Huff, in Performance Unlimited car No. 22 was one
of 28 competitors last Saturday in the McHenry Kiwanis Soap
Box Derby.

John Street in McHenry was transformed last Saturday from a residential roadway, on the southern edge of the downtown shopping district, to a speedway where racers finished the final tweaking of their racecars in preparation for the 13th consecutive McHenry Kiwanis Soap Box Derby.

Just east of 4th Street is a high point on Johns Street. Here were placed two ramps to give the racers a boost as they started racing downhill past Green Street. One car is placed on each ramp and the starting blocks are interconnected so that, when the lever is thrown, both cars start off simultaneously.

The derby was a double-elimination race that included 28 racers and required 63 heats in identically prepared stock Soap Box Derby cars. The winner was Allison Hunt, age 10, but only by seven-hundredths of a second. Narrowly falling to second place was eight-year-old Eugene Feely. The complete list of the top qualifiers includes:

1st – Allison Hunt (10)
2nd – Eugene Feely (8)
3rd – Delia Irwin
4th Andrew Hoffman
5th Michael Metz
6th Connor Magnuson
7th Devon Fuller
8th Madilyn Hoffman

With her victory, Hunt automatically qualified to compete in Soap Box Derby World Championship Sunday through Saturday, July 19-25. Hunt also received $1,000 to help defray the costs of attending the race.

The major sponsors of the McHenry Soap Box Derby are Huemann Water Conditioning and Performance Unlimited.

“I love racing myself,” said Denny Norton, the owner of Performance Unlimited. “Watching these children compete is almost as big of a thrill for me as it is for them. You never know, one of these young racers may take the checkered flag in NASCAR or Formula 1 someday. And they’ll look back and say, ‘It all started here at the McHenry Kiwanis Soap Box Derby.’”

Comments

Is your antifreeze safe from freezing this Richmond winter

You still have time to have it checked Well, there’s no denying it – winter tends to get chilly here in Richmond. We have to deal with snow and ice on the roads, scraping the same off our windows and windshield, and staying warm while we drive. Of course, you had your antifreeze checked before winter rolled into town. What?! You didn’t have your antifreeze checked before winter clamped down on Richmond? So, how’s your antifreeze doing? If you haven’t had it checked, there’s really no way of knowing, is there? This car has overheated in the middle of a Richmond winter. But, on the other end of the spectrum, the antifreeze can also freeze if it's not up to its job. Hopefully, you haven’t had a serious problem with your antifreeze already. If you did, you’d probably know. When antifreeze fails, it’s a potentially catastrophic condition for your vehicle’s engine. You could have hoses that have burst because of freezing antifreeze. Worse than that, your engine block may have crac...

Blocks of ice falling from cars in McHenry could cause accidents or damage

We’ve all seen those blocks of snow falling from behind the rear tires of a car when the snow rolls into McHenry . Fortunately, they’re just packed snow that will disintegrate under your vehicle’s tires as you simply drive right through them, right? Don’t count on it. Those blocks of snow are often packed so tight, condensed by the thaw-and-freeze cycle, that they’re anything but oversized snowballs . They’re often more like boulders. Hit one of those blocks and the collision between the block and one of your tires could send you careening off the road or into oncoming traffic. In some cases, they’re so solid you could pound them with a sledgehammer with little effect. They truly can represent a serious road hazard. The problem is that it’s difficult to tell how solidly they’re packed when you see them on the road, left their unwittingly by another driver. Either way, your best bet is to try to avoid them. But you want to be careful dodging blocks of ice in the road, too. You need...

October 20 Hootenanny will benefit veterans with PTSD

Been to a Hootenanny lately? When you read that question did you ask, “What?” Well, if you have gone to a Hootenanny in a while, or if you don’t know what a hootenanny is, we have an event for Oct. 20 that will clear up either question. From 6 p.m. to Midnight, Saturday, Oct. 20, MC3, the McHenry Area Chamber of Commerce business networking group, is helping to host an inaugural Veterans R&R Wild Horse Hootenanny at Beyond Stable Farm (11129 Rte. 176, Woodstock). The event will benefit Veterans R&R Operation Wild Horse. Operation Wild Horse serves veterans with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). Working with the horses has proven to have an incredibly calming effect on the veterans. And, it’s good for the horses, too, rescued wild mustangs. This means that the hootenanny is for a very good cause. But, it’s also a lot of fun. So, what is a hootenanny? According to a Google search, a hootenanny is “an informal gathering with folk music and sometimes dancing.” The V...

Performance Unlimited Blog

Search This Blog