Who needs $4-a-gallon gasoline? Jessica Ball, a St. Joseph 14-year-old, gets a trip to Akron, Ohio, thanks to a car running on “renewable” energy.

She’ll compete in the annual World Championship finals of the Soap Box Derby next week.

It’s the culmination of three years of work for Jessica, who will be a freshman at Benton High School next month.

“It’s taken us a long time to kind of get to know the car,” Jessica said, “and figure out how we want to run.”

Jessica and her father , David, work closely as a team on the project. David is the chief builder, and Jessica obviously is the driver.

A cousin in Wisconsin introduced Jessica and David to the sport three years ago. They returned and made it a family enterprise.

“As I get older, I talk to my dad more about how the car felt as I was going down the hill,” she said. “We make decisions based on that, adjust the car and communicate.”

Unlike driving a real car, the key, Jessica said, is avoiding the steering wheel. The soap box cars are launched down an incline, and the less the driver steers, the quicker they’re likely to finish.

“Moving a steering wheel is difference between winning and losing,” Jessica said. “They base the times on thousandths of a second. Even a little mistake can be a big difference.”

The family time — spent working on the car as well as traveling to races — is the biggest selling point for the teen. She and her father work together in the garage building the car and then adjusting it after races.

“My family is really into it,” Jessica said. “It’s a great way for us to spend a lot of time together.”

Making new friends and seeing new cities, such as Chicago, Sioux City, Iowa, Omaha, Neb., and Des Moines, are other positives.

“It’s really fun getting to go to all the different places,” said Jessica, who competes in the Super Stock Car division. “It was really great, getting to meet people from all over and to try out different foods.”