Gentlemen, start your ... right, soap box racers don't have engines

Before 10-year-old Jacob Miller and his father, Steve, made the trip Sunday morning to Naperville for soap box derby races, the pair drove together nearly 40 miles, from the tiny town of Cortland, just outside DeKalb.

The races were a lure the father-and-son team couldn't resist.

"My dad found out about it on the radio and I thought it might be a good idea," said Jacob, scoping out the gravity-powered stock car he was about to drive down a hilly length of Frontenac Road, closed to regular traffic for the occasion.

Peering inside, Jacob found the steering mechanisms and the brake pedal.

"You just turn it and, when you get down there," he said, pointing at the bottom of the hill, "you might have to put on the brake."

He guessed the four-wheeled vehicle might go as fast as 10 or 15 mph. His estimate was a bit on the shy side.

"Here, you can go 21 or 22 mph," said Jim Lazowski, a member of the Greater Chicago Soap Box Derby Association, the organization presenting the daylong racing and demonstration session.

Racers from ages 8 through 17 had the chance to take the nonmotorized vehicles for a spin, past traffic cones, and across the finish line.

"It's for kids who've never done it before," said Stan Iglehart, race director. "They call this rookie races."

Lazowski, of Aurora, explained that the cars come in several sizes including stock, super stock and masters. Regional race winners qualify to compete in a national competition in Akron, Ohio in July.

Lazowski's 15-year-old daughter, Sheri, has been racing soap box derby cars for three years. She's graduated beyond the masters level to compete in what's known as the ultimate speed division. Unlike the smaller cars, her car is sleeker, shaped like a bullet to reduce wind resistance, and she lays down inside it, wearing special glasses that allow her to see the road.

"Anything you can do to streamline the aerodynamics of it makes a big difference," in terms of attainable speed, said Marc Overmyer of Byron, father of two soap box drivers. "This one gets up to 37 (mph)."

Sheri Lazowski said her strategy for covering the most ground in the shortest time is simple.

"Just go down straight. Go as straight as you can," she said.

Before the actual heats between two cars got underway, rookies took turns taking the cars down the hill for test runs.

Christopher Neber, 8, of Naperville, was preparing for his first drive with fellow members of Cub Scout Pack 444, Den 9, while his mother, Pam, watched from the sidelines.

A smiling boy in the driver's seat of a stock car smiled even wider when his car was released and rolled down the ramp and into the street.

"This is a little boy's dream," she said.