May Day Derby

At one of Muskegon County’s neighborhood parks you will find the remains of an old soap box derby racing strip back in the woods. This track is no longer used but many of the local children delight in hearing stories from their parents about racing their homemade wooden cars down the asphalt strip in the trees.

This year, five children who live nearby (two girls named Genna and Taylor, and three boys named Austin, Landen and Ben) decided that they would hold a soap box derby race on May 1st. The May Day Derby, as they called it, was to be a little different from a traditional soap box derby in that the children themselves would not be driving their cars, rather after building their cars, each of which were marked with a different number (2, 7, 12, 17, 22), they brought them to the top of Derby Hill, strapped in their dogs (Gus, Cooper, Buddy, Ralphie and Dora), with helmets of course, and sent them whizzing off down the hill while the children stood nearby cheering.

Using the clues below, determine the order (first through fifth) in which each car finished the race, the number and canine driver of each car, as well and the first and last names (Northouse, Eastman, Westveld, Westgate and Southerly) of each car owner. Then use the information from the completed puzzle to help you find the letterbox.

Puzzles Clues…

1. The car belonging to the Southerly boy finished fifth; he doesn’t own car number 22, which belongs to either Austin or Landen.
2. The number on the car owned by the Eastman child is five more than the number on Austin Westgate’s car and five fewer than the number on the car driven by Buddy.
3. The two girls are the Northouse child (whose driver is not Buddy) and the one whose driver is Ralphie (who isn’t driving car number 7 or 17).
4. Gus did not drive car number 7; car number 2 did not win the race.
5. The car driven by Dora finished immediately ahead of the car owned by the Eastman child, who finished immediately ahead of the car owned by Landen.
6. At least two cars owned by boys finished consecutively; Ralphie is not Genna’s dog.

Finding the Letterbox…

Once you have solved the puzzle, use the following clues to make your way to the letterbox:

1. Begin at the top of Derby Hill and follow the track to the end of the blacktop.
2. Follow the trail at [car # of the 4th place finisher] squared + [product of the finishing positions of the cars belonging to the two girls].
3. Proceed [sum of Taylor’s car # and Austin’s car #] paces to a intersection of trails.
4. Follow the trail that heads [direction found in Genna’s last name].
5. Come upon a very large [finishing position of the car owned by the Northouse child]-trunked tree on your right.
6. From this tree, proceed [Landen’s car #] paces and stop between the ends of 2 cut logs.
7. See a naked tree standing at [product of the car #’s driven by Gus and Ralphie] - [# of the car driven by Cooper] degrees.
8. From this tree, proceed [product of the finishing positions of all car numbers ending in 2] paces at [sum of the car #’s belonging to Genna and Ben] multiplied by [product of the finishing positions of the cars driven by Dora and Buddy] degrees.
9. Find the box tucked under the end of a hollow fallen log.