Soapbox Racing Queen Brimming With Can-Do Spirit
State's 1st World Champ Ready to 'Go Out on Top'

By Michael Tunison
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 19, 2007; SM03

For Kacie Rader, the ascent to world champion began with a trip to the hospital.

When the 16-year-old from Mechanicsville first scrambled into a soapbox car, it was 10 years ago at the annual Southern Maryland Soap Box Derby in Leonardtown. She was following in the footsteps of her older sister, Jamie. Unfortunately, Kacie followed them into a roadside guardrail that knocked her car on its side, sending her to the hospital with a swollen cheek and a minor concussion.

When she came home that night, her mom, Ann, recalled recently, Kacie was adamant about going "right back down the hill."

And so began what has been a decade-long soapbox racing career, during which Kacie has won three national titles and one world championship. Last month, she took home the gold jacket -- soapbox racing's top prize -- at the All-American Soap Box Derby in Akron, Ohio. She followed that up a week later with a win at the National Derby Rally Championship in Muncie, Ind.

With her win in Akron, Kacie became the first world champion to hail from Maryland or the District. Kacie qualified for the finals by winning a derby race on Capitol Hill. She competed there because Leonardtown does not have an advanced division.

"She finally got D.C. over the hump," said Jeff Iula, general manager of the All-American Soap Box Derby. "The city had gotten close before. Someone from the region had been in the final heat something like five out of the last 10 years, but she was the one to finally step up and claim it for them."

This year, 597 people representing more than 40 nations raced in Akron. To claim the gold jacket, Kacie bested a field of 62 in the masters division, the most advanced group. A single-elimination race, Akron is difficult to win because racers can't make adjustments between heats, Kacie said.

"It was remarkable that she won very easily here," Iula said. "She took the final race by a car length, when most races are decided by about a wheel."

The Rader family's Mechanicsville home overflows with the trophies that Kacie and Jamie have won. The awards occupy space in several rooms. They are piled under coffee tables and sticking out from shelves. Kacie's mother jokingly says that her daughter will have to take her awards, nearly 100, when she leaves for college.

As Kacie nears the end of an accomplished racing career -- those 18 and older can't compete for the world championship -- she says she is ready step away from racing for a while to study radiology, for which she can apply the $5,000 scholarship that came with the title she won at Derby Downs in Akron. Kacie turns 17 in October and has one more year of eligibility.

When the time comes to stop, "I think I'm ready," she said. "I say you should go out on top."

Racing has played such a central role in her social and family life that she said that it will not be easy to drag herself away. Her family accompanies her during the 20 weekends a year that she travels for races, typically to small towns in Pennsylvania. Kacie and her father, Jimmy, have spent hours together in his auto repair shop in Hughesville constructing cars for her to race, some out of fiberglass and others with wood-paneled bottoms.

Kacie wonders whether some of the close friends she has made in racing over the years will continue to be a part of her life. Even some of her friends at Chopticon High School, where she will be a senior, don't know what she does on the weekends.

"This is how I know my closest friends. It's a lot of the same crowd from year to year. A lot of these people become family to me," she said. "I couldn't imagine not seeing them every weekend."

Her parents agreed.

"It's to the point that when we go up to Pennsylvania, we know we have a place to stay," her father said. "These people welcome us into their homes. It's become so much more than racing."