Allan Appel Photo
Corolla, in the non-Italian ice cart, took an early lead and held it.
Marchela Corolla changed her Italian ices cart from last year for a shorter swifter model and nosed out rookie driver Andrew Jimenez in the first heat of intense competition in Morris Cove.
The scene Saturday early afternoon was the first race in the third annual edition of the Nathan Hale School’s Soap Box Derby, held under a sunny sky in the raceway fashioned out of the driveway at the side of the school.
There parents had set up cones to mark race lanes and a dozen hay bales at the curving end of the track in case any of the helmeted downhill racers took a spill.
Click here for the story of last year’s competition, with the rules and the requirements for the inventive, engine-less, gravity-powered vehicles, whose creations are family and school community-building events.
Emma’s dad Ryan Reynolds (crouching at rear) said her Caddy was overweight and a gas guzzler.
To this sportscaster’s eye two themes emerged at this edition of the Soap Box Derby in the early heats: With some notable exceptions, jazzy, cool, even glamorous looks like Emma Rae Reynolds Pink Cadillac (pictured) took precedence over aerodynamically sleeker designs.
Second, girls were winning more heats than the boys.
Or as event organizer John Cirello put it over the public address system after the first several heats, “Come on boys, the girls are kicking butt this year.”
Last year’s defending champ Stan Rakov (pictured) took a daring luge approach to his vehicle design. He both steers and brakes using the same mechanism, basically a spring-loaded doorknob.
Third-grader C.J. Cicarella’s space shuttle-inspired vehicle was fashioned out of linoleum and chicken wire, with no retro-rockets in sight. Still it got a lot of “awesomes” from the other drivers and fans.
“It doesn’t go very fast, but I don’t care,” he said. His dad Charles, who helped in the building along with C.J.‘s grandfather, said he was happy the whole experience seems to have made C.J. want to be a pilot or astronaut.
By day’s end, the winners were:
Anthony Corolla helps C.J. Cicarella move his space shuttle car up for its next heat.
First Place, Stan Rakov (returning champion).
Second Place, Jenna Johnson.
Third Place, Anthony Corolla.
“Last year Anthony Corolla was involved in an accident that took him out of the race. It’s good to see him back and a trophy winner!” Cirello wrote in his email.
The event had 23 entrants, all Nathan Hale students ages 5 to 12.