Mother and daughter team up to compete in Soap Box Derby

Bailey Kralemann's strategy was to take off her glasses, duck her head as low as possible and pump her body for extra momentum.

Bailey and her mother, Robin, participated in the annual Cape Girardeau Rotary Club Soap Box Derby on North Sprigg Street for the first time on Saturday. They were one of 31 teams.

Bailey, 11, raced two times in both the winner and elimination brackets. Although she didn't make it to the final round, she's already looking forward to rolling down a hill next year.

Bailey was told her cart made it to 25 miles per hour.

She was stopped by the barrier when her brakes gave out during one of the heats.

Bailey Kralemann, front, started her race against Jordan Little down North Sprigg Street on Saturday in the Soap Box Derby.

"They yelled, 'Brake,' so that's when I stomped," she said. "I, like, went right through the hay."

Bailey immediately put her head down beneath the steering wheel, just like she was told to do in case she crashed into the hay stacks.

According to Robin, they must not have tightened a part properly.

The cart was borrowed from the Centenary United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau. The Kralemann duo had to take it apart in front of the judges and rebuild it. They received help from a number of the other families involved in the event, including Jeff Long, a member of the Rotary Club's board of directors. Building the cart is part of the soap box tradition, he said.

"You're passing tools back and forth, perhaps doing something unfamiliar," Long said. "Even if you don't win a single race, at least you have that feeling of achievement."

Robin Kralemann said she's better at taking things apart than putting them back together. "We're used to doing housework together," she said. "Baily wanted to use the screwdrivers and the socket wrenches."

Robin, a second-grade teacher at Clippard Elementary School, is a soccer mom turned into a Soap Box Derby mom.

Bailey was nervous the first time she went down the hill, but afterward wanted to go again.

Her mother said the two quickly discovered that the eastern lane was slower than the one to the west. Bailey competed in the stock division. She weighs 65 pounds and had to have weights placed in her cart to raise it to the appropriate weight of the division, which is 200 pounds. The racer, age 8 to 17, in the superstock division must be 230 pounds, counting the cart.

When Bailey was eliminated from the race, the Kralemanns stuck around to root for the other eight girls in the tournament.

tkrakowiak@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137