It's all downhill at Ron Merkel Cratebox Derby in Spring Valley

John Molseed, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
·3 min read

Jul. 16—SPRING VALLEY, Minn. — When Hailey Stevens, 6, prepared for her first heat in a crate box car decorated with flames, her mother, Amanda Stevens gave her some advice.

"Keep the wheels straight and try to stay in the middle of the road," Amanda said.

That's easier said than done in a hand-made car made of wood that uses framing wire to steer. By steer, it usually means veer.

And Hailey did veer at about two-thirds of her run down the hill on South Broadway Avenue in Spring Valley, Minnesota.

She corrected. Then over corrected. Then over-over corrected and veered into the other lane taking a traffic cone with her.

"She did OK until she didn't do OK," Amanda said of the run.

"When I was on the hill, it felt very slow, but once I got to flat ground, it got faster," she said.

Hailey said she knew she reacted badly.

"I froze out," she said.

That run knocked her out of the championship bracket in her age group at the third annual Ron Merkel Cratebox Derby Saturday.

Hailey was one of 10 competitors in her age group. After that run, Hailey straightened up her approach and made a run of the consolation bracket to qualify for the finals. She won the consolation bracket and came within inches of a third-place finish.

Competitors gathered at the top of hill on South Broadway Avenue at High Street. They set up on a wooden ramp on a trailer that has a release mechanism that drops both cars simultaneously. From there, gravity, inertia and a bit of driver skill does the rest down the hill from High Street 600 feet to short of the Park Street intersection.

This is the third year of the derby named after the late Ron Merkel, who used to run the former King of the Hill Cratebox Derby at Spring Valley Ag Days. Merkel even built some of the more than a dozen cars competitors had to choose from Saturday.

Many of the cars were built by local businesses, said derby volunteer Shelly Skindelien. A few brought their own, but most competitors opted to use what they sized up as the fastest after the first rounds of competition.

In the 10-and-up competition, Carter Becker, 10, was wondering which car he would use in his run.

Cody Merkel, Ron Merkel's grandson, suggested a blue-gray car his grandfather made.

Becker wasn't so sure.

"That one has bad brakes," Becker said.

"You don't need brakes," Merkel said.

Norma Merkel, Ron's wife, helped plan and coordinate volunteers for the event. The winner of the under-10 category was his great nephew Spencer Merkel.

It's practically a family dynasty, volunteer Angie Gensmer joked.

This year was the first year the derby was under the umbrella of the Spring Valley Fins and Films town festival. Gensmer said arrangement has helped volunteers focus on hosting and improving the event while Fins and Films help with promotion and financing the event.