HOULTON – Luke Brabant’s auto racing tastes lean toward NASCAR, particularly Ryan Newman and rookie Kasey Kahne.

And like those at the top of the stock car world, the 11-year-old from Chapman is always trying to make his Soap Box Derby Super Stock car coast a little faster down Derby Hill.

“Me and Dad thought about changing the torque setting on the car. We were just guessing,” said Brabant after competing in Saturday’s ninth annual Northern Maine Soap Box Derby.

“But we really didn’t want to change the torque setting [which loosens or tightens the steering], so we went with what we had. We didn’t think we’d come out on top. We thought we had a chance, but we didn’t know.”

Brabant did come out on top, but by the slimmest of margins in qualifying for the 67th All-American Soap Box Derby to be held July 26-31 at Derby Downs in Akron, Ohio.

After narrowly losing the first run of the two-run championship round against Justine Sloat of Houlton, Brabant won the second run to win his division by 0.0029 seconds.

“Justine put up a good race,” said Brabant. “She’s a good racer and good to race against.”

Also qualifying for a trip to Akron was Stock division winner Logan Holmes of Houlton, who edged Alishia Ledger of Houlton by 0.0338 seconds in the championship round.

“Last year I went, too, and that was really exciting,” said the 11-year-old Holmes, who qualified a year ago by accumulating sufficient points in a series of weekend rally races. “It probably will be funner this year. It’s really big.”

Like Brabant, Holmes lost the first run of his championship round. But like Brabant, given a chance to swap lanes and run in the faster Lane 2 in the second run, he produced just enough extra speed to overcome his first-run deficit.

“It’s probably the wheels, the wind, and how close you get to the cones [that makes the difference],” he said.

Fifty-nine Stock racers and 45 Super Stock entrants shook off some morning rain to take part in this event, which traditionally is one of the larger qualifying races in the country and is held on a hill built near Millar Arena several years ago specifically for the Northern Maine Soap Box Derby.

Top finishers in each division were awarded U.S. Savings Bonds donated by local sponsors.

“This is a great event in my mind,” said first-year race director Grady Tidd. “It’s families doing things together with the children as a team. It’s a great sport that way. I think it’s brought us all a little closer to our kids.”