For most of the drivers who tinkered with their cars Tuesday, it was routine last-minute adjustments and weigh-ins before retiring their cars to a dark barn.
For Federico Spista, who drove his 9-year-old son nearly 500 miles from the New York City area to compete in Akron’s championship, Tuesday was “repairing-your-car day.”
“I had quite a few issues here,” Spista said, taking one last look at a list of eight violations volunteer All-American Soap Box Derby inspectors had identified.
The violations ranged from the typical missing washer to an improperly looped cable on the steering column. Two hours after he set down a milk crate filled with wrenches and ratchets (even the size of the milk crate has to meet certain specifications), Spista laughed at the smiling face drawn on a sticker placed on the front of the car. It signified the repairs had been completed.
“That’s supposed to be your designated repair time,” Spista said, chuckling at the 45 minutes written beside the smiley face. “I’m a novice at this, so that ain’t happening.”
Spista’s car is among 70 of the nearly 430 entries this year that were flagged as being out of compliance with derby qualifications that are laboriously defined in an illustrated, 53-page manual available online to all contestants.
The manual and the inspectors play a major role in ensuring no cars are rigged to provide an unfair advantage. A few extra ounces shaved off a washer on one end of the 5-foot-long cars could shave a tenth of a second off a run down Derby Downs.
Violations this year had more to do with not following directions than with gaining an advantage on the competition, officials said.
“Over 90 percent of the [violations] we find now are just missing a washer or something,” said Leon Hershberger, an inspector for nearly two decades. “We really haven’t found anything drastic where they were trying to cheat.”
In the past, Hershberger recalls minor, yet disqualifying, alterations. One racer added so much paint to the front of his car that it actually extended the overall length of the vehicle. Another racer excessively sanded and polished the fiberglass casing around the car and the axles, which jut out from each side.
“At a certain point, you’re making the parts smaller and lighter,” Hershberger said. “That’s been one thing we watch for.”
Spectators and longtime racers circulate rumors about magnets in the toes of shoes or hidden in the front of cars. The magnets are attracted to the steel plate that holds racers back at the starting line before the green light flashes. As the plate drops, the magnets pull the car forward.
But magnets are a thing of the past, Hershberger and other inspectors said.
As the cars — shipped or carted from across the country — began to roll in at the beginning of July, Hershberger and a team of inspectors took a few minutes to look over each one.
A list of violations, like the eight given to Spista, are presented at least a week in advance to drivers, who must rectify those issues prior to making a trial run, a brake test and weigh-in Tuesday.
The whole process is continually streamlined as a control board examines discrepancies and issues not clearly laid out in the 53-page manual.
But even after improving communication and clarifying the manual, Hershberger — a control board member — said violations are inevitable, though not necessarily dishonest.
“We haven’t had as many serious issues as we used to have,” Hershberger said. “But there seems to be more questions each year.”
Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com.