POULSBO– Basketball, baseball, footballl, soccer the big four in sports. The first four thought of when someone says they play sports. For Katie and Quinny Stuart, however, they think of street racing.

Not in a Paul Walker “Fast and Furious” kind of way; but in being the Kitsap Soap Box Derby Association’s local champions kind of way.

Katie, 11, won the local title last year, punching her ticket to the 2015 FirstEnergy All-American Soap Box Derby Championship in Akron, Ohio. Then, on June 7, Quinny followed in his sister’s footsteps to claim the local title and qualify for Akron.

“I won the title that Katie won last year. We wanted to keep it in the family one more year,” said Quinny, 9.

He started racing at age 7, the minimum requirement, after seeing his sister taking part in the sport. Although Katie doesn’t remember why she started, she has since won more  races than any other competitor in her region.

“He wanted to start as soon as possible because I was doing it,” said Katie. “It’s fun because it involves the whole family, it’s not just racing.”

Katie and Quinny compete in the stock division. This is for racers between the ages of 7-13. Racers must make their own car and the combined weight of the racer and car cannot exceed 200 pounds. So, it’s a good thing that Katie and Quinny’s favorite subjects in school are math and science.

When they aren’t competing in races this summer, they want to apply those math and science interests and try to make a Rube Goldberg machine.

“A lot of the same principals of building that kind of machine go in to building the cars and analyzing races, their mind has to work along the same lines,” said Sarah, Katie and Quinny’s mother.

That is another thing they love about this sport, it allows their whole family to work as one.

“Families all work together to build cars, figure out lines on the tracks,” said their father, Brian. “We all help new racers with that stuff as well, every one works together.”

Sarah agreed, saying, “It’s called All-American for a reason. It’s a wholesome family sport. You’ll see parents, grandparents, kids all working together on cars and the race, it’s pretty cool.”

On their way to Akron, the family is going to take a road trip to see the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore and sites from “Little House on the Prairie.” Then, when they cross in to Ohio, the real fun will begin.

“It’s more than just racing,” said Sarah. “They have fun events for all the racers, a whole week of activities leading up to the races.”

Among those activities are Rock-the-Rec day, where all of the racers take over the recreation center at the University of Akron. Racers also go to a baseball game and get to take part in a parade that goes through town.

“Last year the racers got to lead the parade, which is really cool,” said Katie.

Soap box derby, although competitive, brings more friends than enemies. Local racers in Kitsap all take a trip to the lake together in the summer, which proves that this sport is unlike most others.

“It’s competitive but nice competitive,” said Brian. “It’s not a cut throat sport where you have parents yelling at refs or umpires.”

Other than Akron, the farthest the Stuarts have travelled for a race is to Redmond, down to California because Katie was recently invited to race at a tournament in the golden state.

Quinny and Katie said they have made a lot of friends thanks to Soap Box.

“One of my friends from school even started racing in the local tournaments,” said Quinny.

In Poulsbo, racers compete on Dauntless Drive. Where this home course has a curve, most courses are straight. However, that still provides the challenge of analyzing the course.

“The course of the road is hard to figure out,” said Katie. “You have to find the right path and use the grain of the road to gain speed.”

For all the future racers, Quinny’s main advice is simple: “Don’t go over pot or man holes.”

To prepare for each race and get their mind right, when they get in their cars, they both eat a skittle.

“We eat power pellets, like Marshawn,” said Quinny.

Its easy to see that the Stuarts are a close family. And they encourage others to try soap box racing.

“It’s an easy-entry sport,” said Brian. “The Soap Box Derby Association is always looking for more races and they have cars to loan out so you don’t have to shell out a ton of money for a new car and equipment.

Come July, when NBA finals are over, the MLB is on All-Star break, the NFL hasn’t start and the World Cup is coming down to its final teams, Quinny and Katie Stuart will be competing in a sport that is unlike any other. Soap box derby may not yet be a sport that one automatically thinks of, but its a sport that brings the family toghether.

“It’s one of the only sports where boys and girls work together and compete on an equal level,” said Sarah. “Not a lot of other sports are like that.