 One, two, every summer in Washington DC boys build their own racing cars and enter them in the local soapbox service. I entered last year but I didn't win. So I decided to build a new car and enter again this year. My name is Clarence Carter Jr. but my friends call me C. I came into Lumberyard. I was finding the kind of wood I needed for my floorboard. I wanted it not too heavy and heavy enough to carry the car. It couldn't be a real expensive type of wood because I only had $20 to spend on the whole car. He suggested a piece of pine. He showed me a first piece of wood. Grain was a little rough. I said I had to turn it down in hopes that I might get a better piece. But he did show me a better piece of wood. So I got that piece for my floorboard. What am I named? Gregory Wilson and the race. He didn't enter last year but he entered this year. He's always heckling me. Like most boys, I love my mother. I don't like it when she calls me to do something and I've already started on something else. She called me for choir rehearsal so I had to go. He's singing all that well. Mr. Shaw I guess he thinks that I sing well not to stand in choir. Sometimes I get bored at choir rehearsal. He's singing songs and you sing them over and over again. Every now and then I sneak a look at the beams in the church and they so reminded me of the sportsman racer. Because they curve around the top and then come straight down on the sides. I had to make sure Mr. Shaw wasn't watching. He sees all. He gets a little mad when we don't sing. Like we're supposed to be singing. You raise his voice. He yells frankly I don't like it. I like to get out of choir rehearsal. I had trouble with the steering mechanism. I couldn't figure out which way to wind the wire around the steering shaft so the car would turn the same way that I turned the wheel. You have to figure out there's a child in there method. My father he's a chemist and he works at Howard University. He uses that method. I thought about working as a chemist when I grow up. It seems strange to me how that you can take two things and put them together and come out with something completely different from what you originally had such as a common table salt. You put sodium which can be a very dangerous chemical and chlorine which is poisonous gas and you put those two together and you come out with regular table salt. I like this kind of work. When I go into the service I plan to become a power trooper. I've always wondered how it would feel just falling through space. I actually never even been up in an airplane yet. Because of my height the brakes didn't have to be made a certain way. When I get in I have to have room to stretch my legs. Time of inspection is drawing closer. I was excited about finishing the car knowing that I designed the car and built it. It gave me some feeling of pride. The year before when I went up for inspection I had trouble. Various things were wrong and inspectors checked the car. They sent me back and I had to make corrections on it. The inspection was held in a high school gymnasium. Some of those cars had pretty good designs and the competition would be pretty stiff. The inspector seemed like he was giving them a good going over. Some of the cars didn't pass. They had to be taken back and worked on. I wondered how tough they would be on me. I didn't know for sure if I was gonna pass. Oh here it goes. I had trouble with it before. The steering system seemed to be a little bit loose and let that go. You wanted me to test up my brakes. I managed on the brakes when I finally passed. The day before the race I decided to go down to the track and see how it was laid out. It was hot. Just like it was the day that I raced the year before. I tried to be sitting as long as the shit stands quiet. I'd be filled with people cheering and yelling. Cars would be at the top of the hill. If I won the national race, I'd get $7,500 scholarship. Any colleagues that I want to go to, I would be the one to win. 200 more boys into the race. They come from all over Washington. They're by Maryland, Virginia. In Sobox there'll be officials keep the cars at Coolidge High School gymnasium so the cars can't be altered and then they deliver all the cars in a truck. When they take your car off you're worried about them being careful with your car. You don't want them to damage the steering system of the brakes. The other boys had some pretty good racers. They look like they'd be pretty fast. I had to pop up my car so the wheels wouldn't get flat. I got real tense when they started lining up the cars. I wasn't in the first race. Greg was in the first. Attorney General Kennedy started the race. The race in the system of heat and the winner from each heat of three cars comes back and races again. One, two, three. I don't know about the other guys but when I get on the ramp I'm no longer nervous because I'm too busy concentrating on other things like getting ready to steer my car, getting in a good position so I can get speed out of the car. When you're going down the hill, 35 or 40 miles an hour, the wind's blowing in your face. You hear the people cheering and you're trying to stay down knowing the car. Steer it straight so that you get the maximum speed. It's an exciting feeling. As we got to the bottom of the hill, my car, I weighed the car on my right and so he edged past me at the end of the race. I finished in third place. My time was 30 seconds. Last year's race was about 31 or 32 seconds. I did better this year. I talked with the guy I raced against. He was the one that came in second. I wished I could have had the trophy. He had the better car than he won so I congratulated him. I wasn't happy about losing but I have some plans for next year. Changing design, practice on my driving more. I'll end up getting next year. Maybe I won.