Young Jared Prevete set his sights high and took his soap box racing prowess to the biggest venue of the sport, the 72nd annual All-American Soap Box Derby at Derby Downs, in Akron, Ohio.
Prevete, a charismatic 12-year-old, tore up the asphalt with his jet-black soap box car and finished third overall in the top seated Masters Division.
On Saturday, July 25, Prevete overcame the muggy weather and the 61 other title-hungry participants in his division.
“It was really thrilling,” said Prevete, who has been racing since he was eight. “I was nervous about the weather and getting bad lanes, but other than that, I was very confident.”
Prevete resides in Selden, Long Island, but races out of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. He has to practice with his team out there because the sport is much less popular where he lives.
Prevete’s father, Phillip, has been the driving force in pushing Jared to his highest potential.
“Its all about the kid’s confidence,” said Phillip, a proud father of three boys and one girl. “I was getting him all pumped right before the big race … saying ‘whose day is it Jared? Whose day is it?’ ”
When the races started, Jared’s father transformed into the typical howling and hollering father in the stands that couldn’t control his glee – a person that Phillip never thought he would become.
“Once that adrenaline starts pumping, you just want him to push it 100 percent and take the race,” said Phillip, who was embarrassed by his own antics in the stands, but didn’t care because his son was achieving his dreams.
Jared’s car is named “Fuggedaboudit” because of they wanted to represent their home state, and for the fact that it has to have thirteen letters in it, a superstition that the Prevete family has passed down for eight years now. Spooky enough, the number that Jared was given at Akron was 67 – add those digits up, and the superstition still holds true.
The derby drew racers from ages eight to 17, spanning over 35 different states and seven different countries.
“It was a great day for me and I even made a new friend from Germany,” said Jared. “He was nice, but it was hard because we couldn’t really understand each other.”
Henry Foster, the director of the Flushing Meadows Soap Box team that Jared is a part of, thinks that just getting in the top nine at the derby was a huge deal – let alone third place.
“This is absolutely a big deal because he ranked so high at such a young age,” said Foster. “We are all very proud of him.”
For Jared, winning this race was one of the biggest accomplishments in his life. For the sport itself, Jared’s racing skills have really propelled the reputation of the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park division of soap box racing.
“Ever since the day he got back, we have been getting constant calls and inquiries about the race,” said Foster.
Jared has only two tasks for the future. Prepare for the rigors of seventh grade at Selden Middle School, and take his racing abilities to new plateaus.
