Evening star., 1938-06-08
BOY TESTS SPEED
I. BY MODEL RACERS
Soap Box Derby Entrant
Rigs Up Proving Ground
in Basement of Home.

Working with model automobiles
and a testing runway in their base
ment laboratory, q 12-year-old boy and
his stepfather proved today that build
ing racer for The Star-American
Legion midsummer Sop Box Derby
can be made q science calling for re-
search and experiment, as well as lot
of fun and an interesting Job.
The boy Is Howard Hill,5 IL, OF 1926
Georgia avenue NV, who attends Pet
worth School. He won q medal and
baseball glove for finishing third in
Glass B in the Toledo, Ohio, Soap Box
Derby last July.
Howard's stepfather is Isral Kremer,
dancing teacher and soap box devotee.
Mr.. Kremer took Howard to the ma
tional and international soap box finals
last year at Akron. Ohio, where they
saw boys from more than 100 cities
compete for the United States cham
pionship.
To Go to 1888 Finals.
They will be in Akron again on
August IA for the 1898 finals and it
goes without saying that they hope to
go with Howard as Washington cham
pion.
Under Mr.. Kremer's instruction,
Howard and his playmate, Calvin
Thompson, 49, of 400 Fifth street
NV, have become expert automobile
model builders. Both boys already have
entered the derby, which will be held
late in July.
Against the wall in the basement Of
the Kremer home is an improvised run
way with starting ramp operated by
pusher pin. With the pin, Howard
can start two or three models down the
course at the same time and see which
car coasts the fastest.
Howard's tool kit includes every-
thing needed to make models and to
build the real coaster racer. Calvin
has won prizes for his airplane models
and finds 1t easy to switch over to soap
box racers.
When the boys have models, they
know what they want their cars to
look like" explained Mr.. Kremer.
Then they can cut their wood parts
themselves or buy the lumber already
cut according to specifications"
Experiment With Weights.
The real science of. racer building
comes in distribution of the weight
load to get the most rapid coasting
speed. This is the line most Of How
ards experiments have taken. He and
Mr.. Kremer shift the weight load back
and forth on tiny 10-cent store model
automobiles and the homemade min
iatures, often changing from heavy to
light wheels.
The stepfather, meanwhile, is seek
ing professor of physics in one Of the
Washington universities to shed addi-
tional light on the weight question.
Mr.. Kremer's interest in the Soap
Box Derby is just part of his interest
in Howard. In Toledo, Howard took
fifth prize in poster contest and thus
far in Washington he is leading other
boys in a neighborhood contest among
newspaper carriers. He is schoolboy
patrolman at Petworth. -.
THE derby and these other activ-
tiles promote real enthusiasm and
impel the boys to get on top" Mr..
Kremer said. Interests like these
are worth more than all the money
you can spend on children"
Keeps Some Data Secret,
AS for Howard, he wants to keep |
a lot Of this stuff secret" but he did |
reveal that heavy cars run the fastest
on his runway. His other experiments |
at this time include steering radius
ne thinks this caused him to lose the
Toledo championship-brakes, size of
Che favors big ones) and oil |
for the axleS.
Howard raced with bullet-shaped |
car at Toledo, where his parents lived
until recently, but this year he leans
toward THE Star Special" q design
shown in the 1888 official rule book
available for derby entrants at Chevro-
let motor car dealers who are register
ing boys for the derby.
When saw I won the first heat
at Toledo" Howard recalled, II was
really scared stiff. Then I won the
next three heats and I was in the |
finals, where I finished third. It was |
q big thrill"
Howard also remembers the 120, 900 |
spectators who saw 12-year-old Bobby
Of White Plains, NY, win
the national championship at the
Derby Downs Course in Akron last