Intergenerational team wins soap box derby
Eleven-year-old Aldon Papick and his great-grandfather Stu Hayne were born 71 years apart, but for one afternoon Saturday at the Prince George Soap Box Derby they were kindred spirits living a dream that’s going to last a lifetime. Papick’s smooth driving behind the wheel of a lighting-quick cart he and Hayne spent five weeks building together made him the fastest of the fast. Aldon completed the course twice in just 34 seconds and he beat 24 other derby competitors who came out of the woodwork to revive the city’s soap box race tradition after a 46-year absence.
“I’m just so amazed, I’d be happy without a trophy but I definitely prefer one, this is just crazy,” said an incredulous Aldon, when told he’d won his 10-and-over age category and had the fastest overall time.
“I think it’s fast because it’s aerodynamic and because by great-grandpa helped me, of course.”
Hayne, 82, was looking for a project he and his great-grandson could do together and when he learned the derby was returning to Prince George for the first time since 1973, that got the wheels in motion. Hayne remembers when the carts used to race across from the old Woodward’s department store at Parkwood Mall but said back then he was always too busy earning a living to attend the races.
He did some internet research to help him come up with his own design for the cart and ended up spending about $600 to make it happen. Although gravity is the only engine, Hayne made it look like Aldon had plenty of horsepower under the hood when he installed exhaust headers on each side of the cart.
“From what I researched they said weight didn’t make much difference, it’s mainly your aerodynamics and your wheels and axles,” said Hayne.
They practiced a few times on a hill at Reid Lake and that made all the difference for Aldon.
“I was used to the speed, I wasn’t swerving or anything,” said Aldon.
Hayne didn’t want to give away all the trade secrets that went into building a champion but he plans to make one change for next year he thinks will make Aldon’s cart even faster.
“We’re going to put a wing on it,” he said. Nine-year-old Silas Arding was the big winner in the six-to-nine-year-old class – clocking 20 seconds in each of his two runs. Arding and his grandfather, Ian Bennett from Cluculz Lake, built the cart which they had decked out in the sponsorship lettering of the family business, Atkins Growers Greenhouse.
“It was zooming as fast as a car,” said Silas. “It was my first year doing this and I didn’t expect to win. That was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done, I think that would rate Number 5.
“I built it with my grandpa and the hardest part was getting the axles in the same (balance). It wasn’t hard to control, it was pretty easy. I just turned (the steering wheel) a little to avoid the manhole covers and that’s why I didn’t go way around and crash it.
“I figured out of you turn really sharp it slows you down, and don’t even tap the brakes because that makes you slower.”
Bennett said he tried to build the cart with as much stability as possible and used an online article as his guide. The article was headlined: “If Formula One drivers were to build a soap box racer.”
“There’s all kinds of little tracks and gimmicks and stuff like the golden ratio, they called it, and we just applied that to this little car,” said Bennett.
“They said it should look like an upsidedown canoe. Nobody’s got a book on how to build these things after 46 years, some people back then would have more experience.”
Bennett figures it took about 150 hours work to build their cart. The driver had considerably less time than that for testing.
“We live out a Cluculz Lake and we found a hill very similar to this one, so he knows how to drive this car,” said Bennett. “The centre line is all covered with manhole covers and it figures, our little guy aimed for every one and hit every one of them.”
The race began with the nine-and-under kids zooming down from the top of the second hill, until a crash early in the start order prompted a course correction, just before it was Silas’s turn. Six-year-old Weston Amayone got going a little too fast and lost control right at the base of the first hill on Victoria Street and his bullet-shaped cart flipped. He was wearing a hockey helmet and bumped his nose and skidded on his elbow on the pavement before he came to a stop. When first-aid attendants got to him the first thing he uttered was: “At least I’m not dead.”
He wasn’t the only one who went sideways. A couple other drivers discovered defects in the steering designs and hit the curbs, which broke wheels and steering control mechanisms. Fellow competitors chipped in and lent parts and after a few quick repairs they made it back down the hill for a second run.
Weston got an ambulance ride to the hospital and aside from a mild concussion and some road rash, doctors cleared him to leave and he came back in time for the awards ceremony. It turned out Weston’s mom Robyn placed her cell phone in Weston’s cart with a speedometer app turned on and it hit 30.7 kilometres per hour before his crash.
She confirmed he was not texting while he was driving.
All 25 cart drivers were given a push at the top within a 30 metre zone and that made for some fun at the top of the course.
“I see moms and adds up there pushing the kids as fast as they can and they’re just laughing their faces off, and everyone else is laughing because they’re staggering all over the place,” said Ken Shuttleworth, whose 11-year-old son Kyle was one of the faster kids in his class.
Kyle got used to driving the cart he helped build with his dad and grandfather while being towed on the street with his mom’s car. They arrived at the track at 6 a.m. to get in as many practice runs as he could before the races began. He had to put his brakes on hard during that first run when a pickup truck crossed into his path.
“I saw a lot of videos on YouTube and it looked pretty fun,” said Kyle. “I was the first one to try it and the first time was bumpy because of the manholes, but this time I actually dodged them. I just made slight turns and went around them.”
Next year the Shuttleworths plan to ditch the wheelbarrow wheels they used and replace them with bike tires to decrease the rolling resistance.
“They will be faster, the more ball bearings, the faster you go,” said Ken Shuttleworth.
The event raised about $1,500 for Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Prince George.