Ready for the Derby

With a record number of drivers signed up for Saturday’s Soap Box Derby of Culpeper, the number of volunteers for the event also continues to grow.

Organizers expect 130 racers to take part in the event on Blue Ridge Avenue and race director Frankie Gilmore said she has 100 volunteers prepared to help out.

“The thing about the Derby is all the adults are just transformed back to childhood,” Gilmore said. “I think that’s why we have so many volunteers.”

Gilmore said many of the volunteers have already put in time helping with event such as the Family Fun Day on May 24 and driver’s clinics throughout the spring. But the help of so many hands on Saturday could be a huge benefit if rainy weather comes along.

Gilmore said the race will be run, even if they have to wait out a storm or two.

“If all things are good we’ll be efficient,” she said. “Safety is our main concern.”

All the cars have been inspected, impounded and are ready to go for the big race, which will have a new element to it.

Culpeper now has a sister city in Soap Box racing in Camano Island, Wash., which will run its first-ever Derby on Saturday. Both races will be linked coast-to-coast via telephone.

Shane Mettlen can be reached at 825-0771, ext. 127 or

2008 Soap Box Derby of Culpeper

When: Saturday, 7 a.m.
Where: Blue Ridge Ave., adjacent to Yowell
Meadow Park.
Who: 130 drivers, 100
volunteers and hundreds more friends and family, making Culpeper’s Derby
the second-largest in the U.S.