Joey Payeur
They are a year older, a year wiser, and—they hope—a gear faster than everybody else they’ll face.
The sister and brother duo of Marie-Mai and Yannick Langevin of Fort Frances are heading back to Valley City, N.D. this weekend for the FirstEnergy All-American Soap Box Derby national qualifier.
Marie-Mai tore up the track there last year as an eight-year-old—going undefeated in all seven of her two-race matches in the Stocks division.
That topped the category for racers aged seven-12 and qualified her for the FirstEnergy All-American Soap Box Derby World Championship in Akron, Ohio.
Her task becomes significantly tougher this time, though.
Langevin’s divisional victory means an automatic promotion to the Super Stocks class, which will have the nine-year-old going up against drivers as old as 18.
“It’ll be scary,” conceded the shy speedster, who will be making her third appearance in the national qualifier.
“They’re going to have more experience.
“But I’m confident in my skills as a driver and in my car to do as well as I did last year,” she added.
“I think it will be easier this year for me to improve because I know the track well,” she reasoned.
Her dad, Patrick, a soap box racer himself from his childhood days in Montreal, agreed.
“Since she won last year, I think she will be more reliable under pressure,” he predicted.
“She’s a three-year veteran now and hopefully will use that experience to do well.
“But I have seen where a team wins the Stanley Cup one year and then doesn’t even make the playoffs the next year, so I’m scared of that kind of thing happening, as well,” the elder Langevin admitted.
“She’s got a new car [built my local resident Todd Dolk], and so there’s new physics that come along with driving the car and it will be a new learning experience,” he noted.
He’s also counting on the reverse of the traditional saying that bigger is better.
“The one advantage she will have over the 18-year-olds is that they are bigger than her, so it will be easier for her to lean forward and give more drag to her car,” he explained.
While victory will mean another trip to Akron for the worlds July 19-25, a second-place finish isn’t a bad consolation prize if that ends up being Marie-Mai’s fate.
Runners-up will be allowed to enter the NDR rally championship in Cleveland at the end of July.
“It’s a real popular circuit, as well, although if you were to compare, it would kind of be like the KHL compared to the NHL,” Patrick Langevin said.
Eight-year-old Yannick, meanwhile, will rely on familiarity as his strong point when he brings the same car he competed in last year to Valley City again this weekend.
“I think I have a good chance of doing well because it’s the same car,” said Yannick, who had a sixth-place finish in the rally portion of the event last year, beating his sister along the way.
“The most fun for me at these events is when I go down the track,” he added.
“I love the speed of it.”
