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Saturdays of Thunder is the ninth episode of season 3. The episode first aired on November 14, 1991. It was written by Ken Levine and David Isaacs and directed by Jim Reardon. It features cultural references to films such as Ben-Hur, Lethal Weapon, and Days of Thunder.

Bart becomes deeply immersed in competitive soapbox racing while Homer begins to realize that he's not as good a father as he thought. After attending a lecture at National Fatherhood Institute, Homer becomes a more attentive father, helping Bart build the ultimate soapbox racer. But Bart decides not to use it in his big race against Nelson Muntz, instead opting to borrow Martin Prince, Jr.'s scientifically engineered aerodynamic racer.

When the local Soap Box Derby is held in Springfield, Bart has his heart set on first prize. But the catch is that he must build his own Soap Box Racer. In the meantime, after taking a fatherhood quiz, Homer discovers he knows next to nothing about his son. He goes to the national father hood institution, at the institution they give a book on father hood. He offers to help his son by building the racer together, Bart eventually agrees.

Unfortunately, Homer's less than adept building skills brings Bart a very shoddy, rickety piece of junk for a racer (named Li'l Lightnin'). This is especially so in comparison to Martin Prince's personally designed and built space shuttle-like racer, Honor Roller. Martin and Bart form an alliance vowing that either must somehow beat bully Nelson Muntz and his very intimidating racer, the Roadkill 2000, armed with every dirty trick in the book...