WEST PARIS — A little rain couldn’t stop a group of kids from holding their own unofficial soapbox derby.

The second Saturday of the town event was canceled due to weather concerns, but the kids who were really passionate about the race — and the ones who had arrived before it was canceled — held their own informal derby. 

The first race, Kathleen Dean versus Tyce Sawyer, was an even match. Their dads helped them pull their homemade cars up Derby Hill, readying them for the steep drop. It’s a sudden start and a quick end, and if the children don’t keep their cars steady, they could slip off the track or run off into the trees. 

The child-sized cars zoomed across the finish line neck-and-neck, but Sawyer took the win. Both racers were excited and smiling from the adrenaline rush. 

The morning was more personal and laid-back because of the cancellation, but that was just fine for the Dean family.

Kathleen and her dad, Tom Dean, worked together to refurbish an old derby car they found on Craigslist.

“It’s a 99 car, 22 years old,” Tom said.

“We just got it and fixed it up,” Kathleen added. 

Charmaine Penley, one of the event organizers, hopes it becomes an annual event.

“Someone came up and made a donation last weekend just because they were so excited to see the Soapbox Derby coming back,” she said. 

In clement weather conditions, the event has a music system, bounce house, and temporary fishing pond available.

“There’s excitement and interest in it,” Tom said. “We’re really trying to bring it back to life.”  

“We’re trying to make it an annual event again,” said Terrie, Tom’s wife and Kathleen’s mother. 

Tom explained some of the finer points of crafting the vehicle:

• The back axle has to be measured on both sides to the front tip. If it’s not even, your race won’t go well; and

• A bolt has to hold down weights in the front or back, to adjust where the energy is concentrated, depending on whether the hill is convex or concave.

“It’s more than just goofing off,” he said. “There’s some real science behind it.”