France has its Tour, Kentucky has its Derby, but Akron, Ohio, is the place kids flock to every year to race their homemade cars faster than all others down a steep hill. Each of them has spent the past year building, fine-tuning and competing in cars that some may consider low-tech because they run on skill and gravity instead of souped-up engines and computers.

When these kids first race down the big hill at Derby Downs, they are already regarded as champions, for they have won the contests in their home cities and districts in their quests to get here. And don't forget the parents and supporters who helped them; it takes a team effort to earn the right to compete at these finals.

Someday, the champs will realize that the road to Akron was a defining part of their lives and a cherished memory. Eventually, they will understand that the effort, dedication and determination it took to reach Akron will help shape them into the adults they become.

The 70th running of the Soap Box Derby that ended last month was a particularly sweet victory for the winner, as well as the city she hails from. For the first time in 65 years, one of Akron's own, 13-year-old Tyler Shoff, finished in first place.

By now, the kids and their families have packed up and returned to their homes across this country and many foreign ones. As a city, we hope each one of them takes home fond memories of their stay here, enough to keep the desire burning to return next year to compete in the All-American Soap Box Derby.

In honor of all the champs who raced their cars at Derby Downs this year and all of you who just like to compete, I made a balloon-powered dragster from a real soap box with instructions I found in the June edition of Family Fun magazine.

Supplies you will need:

• 1 box from a bar of soap.

• Colored plastic tape.

• Number stickers.

• Sharpened pencil.

• 2 wooden skewers.

• Glue.

• 4 1-inch wood balls with Z\,-inch holes.

• Cylindrical balloon.

• Bendable drinking straw.

Decorate an empty soap box with colored-tape racing stripes and stick-on numbers.

Use a pencil tip to poke two axle holes on each side of the box, C\v inch from each end and Z\v inch up from the bottom. Push a 5-inch section of a skewer through each set of holes. Glue balls to the ends of the axles for wheels and let dry.

Blow up the balloon a couple of times to stretch, and stick the bendy end of the straw into the neck. Use tape to seal the balloon to the straw, then tape the straw to the top of the box.

To race, inflate the balloon through the straw, pinch the end, set the car on a hard surface and let it go.