Speed racer

Staff
Published: July 3, 2008

It’d been almost a week since Kaleb Marshall won the stock division of the sixth Culpeper Soap Box Derby race and the Unionville boy still can’t stop smiling.
It may have something to do with the five-foot tall trophy that was clearly taller than the rising fourth-grader at Lightfoot Elementary.
It may have something to do with a bet his dad Keith had made with him before the race.
Or, it may have something to do with that July 26 trip to Akron, Ohio to pit his Marshall Farms car against the nation’s best.
“I feel happy,” the nine-year-old understated. “I was so nervous. I had never made it that far.”
Marshall was one of more than 120 drivers who participated in the race last month at Culpeper’s Yowell Meadow Park. Winners are crowned in three divisions–stock, super stock and masters–who will then travel to Akron to compete in the 71st All-American Soap Box Derby.
Marshall has made the trip before. He watched his older brother Kyle Willis when he qualified for Akron in 2004. 
Actually, Marshall comes from a racing family. In addition to Willis, father Keith Marshall raced in Orange as a boy and older sister Kassidy races in the super stock division.
Mother Deanne admits part of the Marshalls’ basement has become somewhat of a pit row for the family’s soap box derby cars.
Cars are purchased as unassembled kits. Racers and sponsors build the cars within parameters established by the All-American Soap Box Derby Race. Modification allowances depend on the level of competition.
Marshall estimated it took about four months to assemble his car and have it ready to race. His car is a little dirty, but he didn’t want to wash it before the race.
“I have a trusty car,” he said.
After he won, that car-and the cars of all the winners-was impounded and shipped to Akron where it will remain until the Marshalls arrive at the end of the month. There, any adjustments must be under the watchful eye of race officials.
In the meantime, Marshall seems content to bask in the glow of his local victory.
“I was amazed. The competition was tough. I had to race a lot of good people,” he said. “It’s the most nervous I ever was.”
Well, maybe until he gets to Akron. How would he feel if he won there?
“I’d probably throw up.”