STANWOOD — For Alex Lemke, the highlight of Saturday’s soap box derby was the big hug from his grandma, who came running as he held up his race trophy.
Alex, 11, of Stanwood, took first place in the stock division of the local derby, winning a trip to Akron, Ohio, on July 25 to participate in the All-American Soap Box Derby World Championships.
“It’s pretty cool and very exciting. I wasn’t sure I’d won until they told me,” Alex said. “I think my whole family might go to the championships.”
Alex was less than a second faster than his closest opponent.
Makenna Thomas, 13, of Issaquah, won the super stock division in the Stanwood derby race. Her father, a sponsor of the derby, manages the Best Buy store at Smokey Point, and she was one of several racers who came from out of the area to participate.
Only in its second year, the Windermere-Wave Broadband Stanwood-Camano All-American Soap Box Derby has quickly become the biggest derby of its kind in the region. The nearest other derby, in Silverdale, attracted fewer drivers for its seventh annual race than Stanwood-Camano had for its first, derby organizer Ed Bednarczyk said.
Nearly 60 drivers, ages 8 to those in their early teens, took turns racing in heats down 276th Street NW in front of a large crowd.
“It was a fantastic day,” Bednarczyk said. “The community really came out.”
The first Stanwood-Camano derby sent two Camano Island kids to the championship races last summer.
Zach Placzek, who placed seventh in the super stock division at the Akron championships last year, helped coach his brother Isaac, 8, who came in second in the stock division Saturday in the Stanwood derby.
Madison Hughes, who won the stock division title last year and traveled to Ohio, came in eighth place in the super stock division on Saturday.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
See race photos
For more information about the Stanwood-Camano Soap Box Derby and for a link to photos taken that day, go to www.stancamsbd.org.
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