Okotoks family's need for speed makes a mark on the soapbox derby

The winner of this year’s Okotoks Soap Box Derby is the latest in a local racing dynasty.

Viana Poulin, who posted the top time of 52km/h this year in her Silver Bullet Car, credited her father Geoffrey Poulin’s design prowess.

As it turns out, he’s had a hand in the last several soapbox derby wins.

“We’ve got four medals on the trophy, but we have seven consecutive years of winning. So it’s been our group in the last seven consecutive years,” says Geoffrey. “Our oldest daughter, Davyda Bedard, was the first winner in our family.”

He’s been building soapbox cars for about a dozen years now, but his family’s involvement in the derby goes back further, with Geoffrey’s older brother having raced in some of the first Okotoks soapbox derbys.

Being an aircraft engineer by trade, Poulin is able to translate his skills pretty directly to making fast soapbox cars.

“There are definitely plenty of trade secrets, but the real big one, which is no secret, is the precision and accuracy that goes into these cars. Year over year we’ve been able to evolve that design and build on top of it and get a little bit better each time with small corrections here and there. It’s not really one big thing, it’s a series of multiple small things.”

This was Viana’s second year driving the Silver Bullet, which was her father’s first covered car design.

She recalls having a tough time with the chrome car last year, noting a major improvement in the 2024 design.

“For the most part, it was the braking system. The original braking system was about one inch of hockey puck attached to a metal bar that you had to pull really hard. So my dad was like ‘You know what? We’ll enhance the brakes.’ I’m like, ‘I doubt that this is going to work…’ He ended up using an actual tire, which worked a lot better.”

The Poulins also brought a few spare front ends of the car, including steering alignment, so that they could easily replace parts rather than having to perform repairs if something went wrong.

The Silver Bullet gets its name and shiny exterior from aircraft aluminum, a lightweight yet resilient material that Geoffrey often works with.

Along with Davyda’s 2017 win, Viana’s older brother Brody Poulin also won in 2018, 2021, and 2022.

Viana has fond memories of watching the derby before she was old enough to join in.

“It was definitely one of those situations where we would get all hyped up, they’d leave at like 8 o’clock in the morning and I’d have to stay back with my mom and me and my cousins would be on the sidelines cheering. The one year I remember was the year my sister won. I was like seven and I remember the dog chasing after her… I went in the next year and I did not want to do it to win, I just wanted to do it for fun because I saw how much fun my sister and her friends had. I think that’s the key to being successful.”

This was her last year in the derby, though her little sister Maye, who came in second place this year, will continue and likely take the reins of the Silver Bullet next year.

Geoffrey extended thanks to the Okotoks Rotary Club for organizing the event each year and to the Kinsmen Clubs of Okotoks for their sponsorship in the last few years.

"This is definitely my favourite thing to do with the kids, the town, and the community. I really hope to see that going on for years and years to come."