Our week in Akron was an "absolute blast"! We met some great people and benefited from
some fabulous hospitality from the many volunteers and staff members at Derby Downs, especially Ken Morrow and Tex Finsterwald.
I'm really grateful to our sponsors and fans for all of their support and I'd have to say that being a part of the All-American
Soap Box Derby in 2005 was the realization of a dream come true for me. Since I was a 13 year old youth [42 years ago],
I always wanted to have the opportunity to measure my creativity and craftsmanship against the best of the best from all over
the world when it came to Soap Box Derby racing. This past weekend my dream came true, although the storybook ending I had
imagined didn't exactly work out the way I had it planned. In the final tally we finished in 8th place out of nine cars
based on our times. And while we didn't win or even place in the top 3, I'm pretty proud of our team because I know we did
the best we could, given our abilities, our team challenges and our time contraints.
There is no other team out there that can truthfully say they are the 8th fastest gravity
powered race team in the world ! And when you look at that accomplishment, I believe that is something to be pretty
proud of.
It is often said that there is no "I" in team and that certainly applied to our team.
Without Joe Remenicky's engineering abilities and tremendous knowledge of what makes a Derby car fast, we wouldn't have even
entered the Ultimate Speed Challenge because I believed from 'day one' that few people alive today know more about the winning
ingredients for a soap box racer than Joe. I approached Joe because I felt he had the knowledge [properly applied] to put
a first place entry on the track. And even today, I still believe that to be true.
Rick Locklear's commitment to drive several times from Pittsburgh to Columbus since the first
part of June to provide technical support and construction help to us proved invaluable to me, and I can honestly say
that without his active role and focused determination, I would have had a much harder time finishing the car. He always
seemed to be there at just the right time for me. There were several days when he left the Pittsburgh area at 4:30 a.m., spent
12 hours with me working on the car in Joe's garage [whose temperature was probably over 100 degrees] and then drove home
again in the same day. The day we cut our floorboard out of a 90 pound slab of rock maple nearly 2" thick with a bandsaw made
me really appreciate his physical strength and professional attitude to work through a challenge and get the job done the
right way. Rick's quiet persona and inner strength helped me to get through quite a few stressful times last week
as we worked fervently to make the car 'race ready' and safe for Drew to drive in preparation for the main event
on Saturday.
Our driver, Drew Sendek, performed his role flawlessly. Prior to our unpacking the racer at
Derby Downs in Akron, he had never even made a test run in the racer. In fact [to be perfectly honest] Rick and I weren't
totally positive that the brake would be able to stop the car once it got going. [More about that later.] Drew had 4 practice
runs on the Thursday before the race. And he drove as straight as an arrow in all 4 runs! Then on Saturday he continued to
drive 'right on the line' in the 3 timed heats which we ran. In Rick's opinion and mine, we couldn't have chosen a better,
more focused driver than Drew. He performed exactly as we had hoped.
Drew's father, Len, was great about filling in as a car handler on race day and with his effort
to obtain a trailer from the Brice UMC Boy Scout troop, the process of transporting and housing the racer and all of our tools
was made much, much easier.
I also want to give credit to many other people, who helped make this dream of mine a reality.
One is my wife, Sandy, who encouraged me to do whatever was necessary to complete the car. Her belief in me and in the
importance of me doing whatever was necessary to get the job done helped me keep my focus on our goal whenever I began to
doubt the wisdom of my decision to take on this project.
Another is Joe's wife, Susie, who helped me to fiberglass the racer on a scorchingly hot afternoon
in the backyard of their home. Her enthusiasm for the project and dedication to helping to ensure the completion of the car
helped me to maintain my focus on our goal of building a competitive entry.
I also want to thank my nephew, Tim Dehnart and his brother, Andy, for attending the race
in Akron on Saturday and agreeing to videotape our participation in the Ultimate Speed Challenge so that Joe could have the
opportunity to view the race, even though he wasn't able to be with us to see it live. Tim, thanks so much!
Another key individual is John Hondros. When I presented John with the opportunity for
Hondros College to sponsor our racer, he was intrigued enough to say 'yes'. And because he believed in us enough to
finance our dream, his belief helped me stay true to my commitment to finish the project through to the end.
What you might not realize is that when I went to John to ask him for sponsorship of our racer,
my plan was to have Joe build the car --- not me ! All I wanted to do was to arrange the funding, handle the promotion
and be there in the winner's circle at the finish line with Joe and the rest of the team to get our first place award.
But as God would orchestrate our story, that was not to happen. Instead, through no fault
of his own, Joe's history of heart problems caused him to be in and out of the hospital several times since April 29th.
So his lack of physical stamina prevented him from spending much time on the construction of our racer, even though I built
it at his house. But the good news was that Joe was able to coach me so that I could complete the construction process with
his guidance. That wasn't my initial plan, and the car would have been much more professional in appearance had Joe been healthy,
but we had to accept the situation and work through it.
I now realize that the real benefit to me was that through it all I was able to develop a
wonderful friendship with Joe Remenicky. And in taking time to get to know Joe as a friend [not just an 80 year
old guy who built fast Derby cars] I discovered that under that crusty old military persona there is a caring, kind and generous
man with a heart of gold for those that he cares about. I'm extremely grateful to have gotten to know him and I consider it
a real privilege to be one of his friends !
