Gentlemen (and young ladies), start your rolling

Bigger translates to better opportunities when it comes to Saturday's Soap Box Derby in Cape Girardeau.

With 17 cars expected in the stock division and 13 entries in the super stock, two winners from the Cape Girardeau Rotary Club's annual local qualifier can qualify for the All-American Soap Box Derby this summer in Akron, Ohio. Ten entries are needed in a classification to qualify. Last year, the event featured 26 boys and girls, but just eight entries in the super stock.

This year's bigger field begins rolling at 9 a.m. Saturday down the hill on North Sprigg Street, north of the intersection with Bertling near Blanchard Elementary. The finals are expected to take place in midafternoon.

Each race consists of two heats, with the better total time in those heats advancing. The bracket is double-elimination.

The larger field has meant more work for second-year race director Tracey Glenn, but she takes heart in the fact it's all for a good cause. The local derby is a primary fund raiser for the Cape Girardeau Rotary Club, which utilizes the money for community service projects. The event raised more than $10,000 last year and should exceed $15,000 this year.

The presenting sponsor for the race is Southeast Missouri Hospital. Its entry in the super stock division will be driven by Austin Martin, who is an 11-year-old fifth-grade student at Cape Middle School.

Austin, the son of Liz and Larry Martin and Lisa Magers, won the honor of driving the car in an essay contest for the children of hospital employees. Liz Martin, Austin's stepmother, is the director of material management at the hospital.

While Austin will be making his Soap Box debut, he is not a newcomer to vehicles.

"I've been riding since I was 6 years old," he wrote in his essay. "I have a dirt bike, four-wheeler and gas-powered scooter."

"That's part of me," Larry Martin said. "He's been into it all of his life. His older brother is the same way. He's 20 and he's had 10 cars."

Austin's brother, Chris, will be in the pit crew with Liz and Larry Martin on Saturday.

Racers will get a chance for a practice run or two beginning 5 p.m. today. After that, cars are checked in and sequestered for the night, part of the precautions to make sure all cars will start on roughly the same footing.

"It's almost funny how particular they are," said Larry Martin, flipping through a booklet of rules and regulations about the car construction. "We worked on it a steady week and a half, but that was just because we had problems with the paint.

"We balanced all four tires and then made runs with the weights in the front and then the back to see which would go faster."

That secret won't be revealed until the end of the day Saturday.