Wholesome scenes from an old fashioned soap box race

The 16th annual South Slope Soap Box Derby on Saturday wrapped a summer of STEM classes for kids

A few had to be pushed over the finish line. One had to be carried across because a wheel popped off. Another veered off course, knocking into a speaker and spilling the emcee’s beer. But most cruised across the finish line with smiles beaming from children’s faces. And thus went the story of the 16th annual South Slope Soap Box Derby, held on Saturday.

Hundreds of people packed the sidewalks of 17th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues to watch 120 children roll their 80 individual creation soap box cars to the finish lines with names such as Eggcelerator, Grog, Wild Segway, Flaming Pizza, Love is a Highway and Death Gladiator.

Whoops! A car loses a wheel mid-race (Stephanie Keith)

“Every year is awesome, the kids made amazing cars. They’re so creative,” said Monika Wuhrer, the director of KoKo NYC, which put on the event and provides the art-based science and engineering classes throughout the city. “It’s amazing how they make stuff out of nothing. There’s just piles of trash there, and they come in and have these great ideas, and it all comes to life.”

Zhen, 10, pilots a homemade UAP-mobile (Stephanie Keith)

Ayla Sebold, 13, made a car called The Forgotten Easter Egg, which she described as “an Easter egg that was forgotten and never picked up, so the entire back is like the Easter egg. It’s growing bigger and resentful of humans because it’s never been found and all it wants is for people to find it.”

“The Beach Cruiser” (Stephanie Keith)

Soap box racing itself dates to the 1930s in Ohio, where a group of friends built racing cars from scraps of lumber. KoKo NYC runs weekly workshops throughout the summer where kids can use found, donated and recycled materials to build soap box cars, with Saturday’s race as the culminating event. At the end of the day, cars are taken apart and materials used for the next summer’s workshops in an ultimate show of recycling.

‘David the D Train’ received near-perfect marks (Stephanie Keith)

Cars were judged in four categories on a scale from 1 to 5 for speed, design, engineering and creativity. The car called “David the D train” received an almost-perfect score. The Flaming Pizza, which had to be pushed over the finish line, significantly boosted its score by offering the judges fresh pizza after finishing the race.

In the end, though, the spectators were the real winners. Here are a few more of Saturday’s racers.