MANSFIELD — The 87th annual North Central Ohio Soap Box Derby took place on Saturday.
But this year’s race came with a twist.
Since 1993, the derby has been on North Main Street in downtown Mansfield. However with the current construction, a new venue was needed to host the derby. After some challenges, the Trimble Road hill parallel to Arlin Field was chosen as the location.
This site served as the track for the NCO Derby from 1970-1991. Russ Kinsey, a Soap Box Hall of Famer and driving force for the Mansfield Derby was excited to watch the race on its former track.
“It’s really neat.” Kinsey said. “The city helped us patch up the road so we could run it here again.”
Kinsey commented that the organization had looked all over the area for a suitable venue and was not sure if Trimble was even viable anymore due to the high level of traffic.
Yet the city was able to coordinate the location, and Mansfield police officers arrived at 4 a.m. on Saturday to get the road clear and ready for racing.
This year’s derby featured 36 drivers across the Stock and Super Stock divisions. The event kicked off at 10:30 a.m. with Mansfield Mayor Jodie Perry waving the green flag to signal the start of the first race.
After nearly six hours of racing, there were only a handful of racers left to decide who would move onto the All-American Soap Box Derby in Akron next month.
Briella Van Harlingen took home the championship for the Stock division, beating Kasen Moore.
Ten-year-old Juliana Van Harlingen was set to race against her older sister Layla for the Super Stock Championship race. The sisters had faced off twice already in the day, each taking a race.
But Juliana tucked her head into her cockpit and flew down the track one final time to emerge as the winner.
Despite the victory, Juliana did not engage in any friendly sibling banter after beating her sister. Instead, when asked how she felt about winning, her response was simply, “I was hoping my sister would win.”
Juliana and Layla both have experience racing in the Soap Box World Championship, and they look to pass that experience on to Briella, who will be competing in Akron for the first time.
(Photos by Richland Source intern Malaki Stanfield)
