Halee Jo McDaniel of Owensboro won the 2019 AAA Local Challenge Race Tuesday as part of the First Energy All-American Soap Box Derby Race Week in Akron, Ohio.
McDaniel will now be the favorite for Saturday’s AASBD World Championship Race, where the winning cars are given the honor of hanging permanently in the Hall of Fame.
She qualified for the event by winning the Super Stock Division of the Owensboro Lions Club local Soap Box Derby race in June. McDaniel was one of 87 local race champions competing from across the country. She endured five rounds to take the national crown.
“My dad prepared a great car for me, and it felt great to have all the Owensboro, Madisonville, Hopkinsville and Bowling Green families cheering me on,” she said of her win.
This is McDaniel’s sixth season of Soap Box Derby racing. She will be an eighth-grader this fall at Owensboro Middle School.
Nine Daviess County drivers invited to Akron — five girls and four boys.
There are three Soap Box Derby divisions — Stock, Super Stock and Masters. To earn an invitation to the AASBD in Akron, drivers can win the local Soap Box Derby in their division or win 180 points through rally racing across the country.
The nine 2019 Daviess County winners are: Halee Jo McDaniel local Super Stock Champion; Sadie Meyer, local Stock Champion; Hannah Salmon, Rally Masters Champion; Davey Edds and Landon Watson, Rally Super Stock Champions and Drew Meyer, Braden Locher, Addison Locher and Kiera Johnson Rally Stock Champions.
