Bates cruises to victory in Masters

Patricia Robare had never won a Soap Box Derby race heading into Saturday’s event on Blue Ridge Avenue, so she was in great spirits when, after 267 total trips down the hill, Robare was battling Quinn-Lynn Bates for the Masters Division title.

Bates and Robare wound up facing each other in four races down the hill to decide the champion of the double-elimination tournament and the pair split the four races before Bates was awarded the championship. Robare actually won the final race of the day by .110 seconds, but Bates had won the previous race by .237 seconds and earned a trip to Akron on time differential.

“It felt really good to win and beat all those people,” Bates said. She’d been racing in the Soap Box Derby of Culpeper for five years, but earned her first trip to the All-American Soap Box Derby next month.

“This is my first year in Masters and you lay down and its way different,” she said. “I think it was way better for me. I didn’t know I was going to win. I just wanted to beat the first person (she faced). That was my goal.”

Bates had to work her way to the championship through the losers’ bracket. The title rounds of the Derby are decided in a two-race showdown and the racer with the best time differential wins. Bates and Robare entered the finals with Robare undefeated, forcing Bates to beat her twice.

“I was really glad I won the first one,” Bates said. “But when we got ready for the second one it was like ‘oh my gosh, I have to beat her again.’ It was really tough, but I was so happy we won.”

Robare came up just short of advancing to the world championships of Soap Box racing, but was quite pleased with the way her day went.

“It was super fun,” she said. “I’d actually never won a race before today, so to be undefeated until the end was really fun. I was really surprised.”

Amanda Halsey, the 2006 Super Stock champion, finished third in the Masters Division and Nicole Holloway, the 2006 Stock winner, came in fourth. It marked the second year in a row that Halsey finished third in the Masters Division.