By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
OLEAN — Teams from five area schools participated Saturday in the Olean Area Soap Box Derby on Washington Street at Oak Hill Park.
The Soap Box Derby’s motto is “We don’t defy gravity… We roll with it.”
Drivers were from Olean, Allegany-Limestone, Southern Tier Catholic, Oswayo Valley and Portville.
Weigh-ins started at 7 a.m., followed by practice runs from 8-8:45 a.m. There were 17 Soap Box Derby drivers listed in the program.
Two food trucks — Zet’s Italian Ice and Sweet Ride Mini Donuts — were in Oak Hill Park to provide refreshments.
Racing began at 9 a.m., but not before the two Master Class cars crashed at the finish line during their last practice run.
Neither driver, Lokesh Anumalsetty and Jadyn Ours, was injured when their cars crashed into bales of hay at the bottom of the course, said Bob Sherburne, the organizer who brought Soap Box Derby racing back to Olean. They hit their brakes while over a manhole cover, tearing off the brake pads.
The Dream it. Do it. STEM program helped rekindle interest in the program.
The three top sponsors were Great Lakes Cheese, Pierce Steel Fabricators and Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation.
Before the official start of the race, the Soap Box Choir, led by coach Carol McClellan, sang the National Anthem.
Each driver competed twice against another driver in the first heats — once on each side of the starting gate.
Divers crouched low in the cockpit to reduce drag and coax a little more speed from the Soap Box cars.
After each run, two cars were loaded on a trailer and hauled back to the staging area behind the starting line.
Winners in the Super Stock division are:
- Ella Moses, Poirtville, first.
- Henry Wind, Olean, second.
- Brynley Walker, Oswayo Valley, third.
- Stock division winners are:
- Thomas Winship, Allegany-Limestine, first.
- Getty Krakat, Portville, second.
- Konnar Thurston, Portville, third.
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