SuperKids hit the ground racing at Friday’s Derby weekend kickoff event

Published 2:45 pm Friday, June 19, 2026

QUINCY — With no raindrops in site and temperatures on the warmer side of mild, Friday morning was a perfect setting for the 2026 SuperKids Race.

The Optimist Club of Quincy hosts the race as part of the annual Quincy Derby weekend, formerly the Soap Box Derby. The SuperKids Race gives kids with special needs, partnered with “buddy-drivers” for safety, a chance to race down the course along North 18th Street between Hollister Whitney Parkway and Quintron Way.

Ken Mansell, a former Quincy wrestling coach and the director of athletics at the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired, said Friday’s event isn’t about the competition, though there will be winners named. Instead it’s about the excitement of the racers who more often than not have to watch and cheer from the sidelines.

“A lot of them are scared the first time,” Mansell said. “But then they see everyone’s rooting for them, and it’s not them having to root for somebody else, they’re ready to get back to the top and go again.”

The SuperKids racers are a specially designed derby car with two seats. This allows the SuperKids drivers to be paired with a buddy-driver that can help handle things like steering and braking.

“Every kid, when they’re racing, they’re going to have so much fun when they leave, they’ll say ‘look, I raced in that thing,'” Mansell said.

Hope Fierge is a long-time SuperKids racer and this year was added to the roster of Hall of Fame drivers for the event. Her long-time buddy-driver, Lanie Fesler, gave Fierge a big hug after Fierge’s last run of the morning.

When asked what the feeling was like to race the cars down the hill, only one word was needed for Fierge.

“Cool,” she said with a giant smile on her face.

Fierge held tight to her Hall of Fame trophy while she posed for a few photos with her friends and volunteers before wrapping up her day in the sun.

One of the key sponsors for the event continues to be Quincy Medical Group. QMG’s Director of Community Relations and the QMG Foundation Morgan Parker said the excitement on the kids’ faces is what keeps bringing QMG back as a sponsor year after year.

“We have a lot of our QMG employees who are volunteering today,” Parker said. “A few of us are here cheering, a lot of our employees are actually driving the golf carts, bringing the kids at the (finish) back up to the top. Just watching them interact with the kids is priceless. It brings us so much joy to be able to help.”

Parker said seeing the looks of excitement on the faces of the SuperKids makes it even more emotional.

“It pulls out your heart,” she said. “You see the joy on the kiddo’s faces as they get the opportunity to race, and that’s why we’re here. We want to support the kiddos, we want them to know that we’re here with them and for them.”

Mansell wasn’t able to work out the timing to bring students from ISVI’s summer camp program this year like he did in 2025, but he brought several of his student-wrestlers from the Jacksonville area to lend a hand. He said it’s been an eye-opening experience for those students.

“They’re already blown away,” he said. “They’ve been saying ‘the pictures don’t do it justice, this is so much better than on the website.’ And that’s the way this is. Once you see it, you really, fully understand that it’s something everybody should see and pause and and cheer for these kids.”

Mansell said he hopes his student-athletes can take away a little something more than just the good vibes from volunteering.

“Public school, private schools, all of them can take a lot of lessons away from here on sportsmanship, enthusiasm, effort,” he said. “Because everybody here wants a quote-unquote ‘win,’ but in the end, when it’s all said and done, they really have won, all of them.”