The Soap Box Derby is a youth-oriented gravity racer event founded in 1934 in the United States by Myron Scott (a photojournalist native to Dayton, Ohio), employed by the Dayton Daily News, and preceded by events such as Kid Auto Races at Venice in 1914. Proclaimed "the greatest amateur racing event in the world", the program culminates each July at the FirstEnergy All-American Soap Box Derby World Championship held at Derby Downs in Akron, Ohio, with winners from their local communities traveling from across the US, Canada, Germany, and Japan to compete. 2024 marked the 86th running of the All-American since its inception in 1934 in Dayton, Ohio, having missed four years (1942–1945) during World War II and one (2020) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cars competing in the program race downhill, propelled by gravity alone.
The Soap Box Derby expanded quickly across the US from the very beginning, bolstered largely by a generous financial campaign by its national sponsor, Chevrolet Motor Company. At the same time there was enthusiastic support from coast to coast from numerous local newspapers that published aggressively during the summer months when races were held, with stories boasting of their own community races and of their champion traveling to Akron with dreams of capturing a national title and hometown glory. In 1936 the All-American had its own purpose-built track constructed at what is now Derby Downs, with some communities across America following suit with tracks of their own.
Its greatest years occurred during the 1950s and 1960s when spectator turnout at the All-American reached 100,000, and racer participation was at an all-time high. From the very beginning, technical and car-design innovation happened rapidly, so derby officials drafted ways of governing the sport so that it did not become too hazardous as speed records were being challenged. At Derby Downs the track length was shortened twice to slow the cars down.
The 1970s brought significant changes, beginning with the introduction of girls to the sport in 1971, although a girl had competed in the event's local predecessor in 1934 and placed second. The following year Chevrolet dropped its sponsorship, sending Derby Downs into a tailspin that threatened its future. Racer enrollment plummeted the following year. In 1973 a scandal hit Derby Downs with the discovery that their world champion had cheated, and was thus disqualified, further exacerbating the uncertainty of the future. In 1975 Karren Stead won the world championship, the first of many girls who would go on to claim the title. Finally, there was the derby's decision to divide the competition with the introduction of the Junior Division kit cars in 1976.
As fiscal challenges continued, the derby instituted new guidelines by redrafting the official race divisions into three: stock, super stock and masters. With them came prefabricated fiberglass kit racers which kids could now purchase, to appeal to a new generation of racers uncomfortable with constructing their own cars from scratch, as well as to help the derby effectively meet its financial obligations. Leading into the 21st century the Soap Box Derby has continued to expand with the inclusion of the Rally Program racers at the All-American in 1993, the creation of the Ultimate Speed Challenge in 2004 and the Legacy Division in 2019.
Introduction
The Soap Box Derby, promoted as "the greatest amateur racing event in the world," is a largely volunteer-driven, family-oriented sporting activity for youth conducted across the US and around the world. Local or regional races are held yearly, with winners from each sent to compete at the All-American Soap Box Derby World Championship, officially the FirstEnergy All-American Soap Box Derby World Championship, which occurs every July at Derby Downs in Akron, Ohio. The governing body of the championship is the International Soap Box Derby, or ISBD, run by a paid administrative staff headquartered at Derby Downs, a term also used metonymically to describe said organization.
The name Soap Box Derby is a registered trademark, and used to identify the sport overall, with those actively involved referring to it simply as "Derby." The official name, FirstEnergy All-American Soap Box Derby, is used solely to identify the annual world championship race itself, and referred to similarly as "the All-American."
Eligibility to race in the Soap Box Derby is open to anyone aged 7 through 20, with participants divided by age into three official divisions, with a specific car design assigned for each: stock, the entry level division for ages 7–13, super stock, for mid-level kids ages 9–18, and masters, the senior level for ages 10–20 and a design where the occupant rides in the fully reclined position. Cars come un-assembled in kits purchased from the ISBD, the only visibly common component of all three designs being the official wheels sets which are available for purchase as well.
While working with a mentor is permitted, kids are expected to assemble the cars themselves to develop the skills necessary for the car to pass inspection before they are qualified to race.
Beginnings
Kids playing on home-made scooters and go karts in the 1930s was not an unfamiliar sight in the streets of America, and racing in organized events was an inevitable outcome of it. As early as 1904 Germany conducted its first soapbox race for kids, and in 1914 there was the Junior Vanderbilt Cup in Venice, California that held a kids race as well.
The Soap Box Derby story began on June 10, 1933, when six boys were racing homemade push carts in Dayton, Ohio, among them William Condit, whose father suggested they have a race and that he would contact the local newspaper to have them cover it. The other participants were Dean Gattwood, Tracey Geiger Jr., Robert Gravett, James P. Hobstetter and William Pickrel Jr.. Of the six, Condit won that race, with Gravett taking second.
Myron Scott, a 25-year-old photojournalist for the Dayton Daily News looking for ideas for its Sunday Picture Page, was one of two photographers that got the call, and accepting the assignment ventured out to investigate. Seeing the appeal of a kids story like this, he asked the boys to return in two weeks with more of their friends so he could host a race of his own. When they did, nineteen showed up, bringing with them racers made of packing crates, soap boxes, sheets of tin, and whatever else they could find. The race was held on Big Hill Road in Oakwood, a south-side neighborhood of Dayton, with a crowd of onlookers coming to watch. Seizing on a publicity opportunity, Scott decided to plan an even bigger city-wide event with the support of his employer, the Dayton Daily News, which recognized the hope-inspiring and goodwill nature of the story—especially during the Great Depression. It posted advertisements of it almost daily to stir interest, and included an application which stipulated "for anything on four wheels that will coast" for the kids to fill out. A date was set for August 19, 1933, to host a parade, the race to occur a day after, and the location chosen as Burkhardt Hill, a straight, westbound slope on Burdhardt Ave east of Downtown Dayton.
On the appointed weekend, a turnout of 460 kids—along with 40,000 onlookers—caught everyone by surprise, and Scott knew he was onto something big. From the original 460 cars, 362 were deemed safe enough to participate, including Robert Gravett, the only boy from the original Oakwood six that made an appearance. At day's end, 16-year-old Randy Custer (pictured), who also hailed from Oakwood, took the championship in his "slashing yellow comet" on three wheels, with 11-year-old Alice Johnson—who shocked many when they saw she was a girl after removing her helmet—taking runner-up.
Scott immediately set about making the race an All-American event the following year, and sought a national sponsor, selling the idea successfully to the Chevrolet Motor Company to co-sponsor with the Dayton Daily News. He was also able to induce many newspapers from coast to coast to sponsor local races on the merits that the story would increase circulation. From the photographs taken at the very first race of the six boys, he selected runner-up Robert Gravett's entry as the archetypal soap box car, and designed it into the national logo along with the now-official name, Soap Box Derby, which became a registered trademark.
First All-American
The very first All-American Soap Box Derby race was held on August 19, 1934, at the same location as the Dayton city-wide race in 1933, on a track that measured . Watched by a crowd estimated at 45,000, boys from 34 cities competed in the all-day affair, with Robert Turner of Muncie, Indiana, piloting a car riding on bare metal wheels with no bearings, becoming the first All-American Champion. Charles Baer of Akron won the All-Ohio Championship, and in a separate race category called Blue Flame for boys aged 16 to 18, Eugene Franke of Dayton, piloting a scaled-down version of a professional motorized racer, took the crown.
In 1935, civic leaders from Akron, Ohio, convinced program organizers to move the event to Akron due to its central location and hilly terrain. A long, eastbound grade on Tallmadge Avenue located at the east end of the city, and the site of the 1934 Akron local race, was used for that year's national event, and a date was set for August 11, 1935. Scott decided to discontinue the Blue Flame race category, as turnout the previous year was low. Fifty-two champs from across the nation made the trip to Akron, greeted by a throng of 50,000 on race day, with Maurice Bale of Anderson, Indiana, in a sleek, metal-clad racer taking the top prize. One mishap was an accident that captured the public's interest, even boosting the event's profile worldwide, when a car piloted by Paul Brown of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, went off the track and struck NBC's Graham McNamee and Tom Manning while they were broadcasting, an incident that continued being described live on the air as it happened.
Marketing the Derby
The Soap Box Derby swept across America quickly during the depression with dreams of winning the All-American becoming quite popular with boys. Within a year of its inauguration, tens of thousands of them were constructing racers. The added inducement of winning a college scholarship was also a chance at a more promising future, particularly when life was a challenge for many. Print media made celebrities of Derby champs, their faces appearing on the front page of every newspaper that covered an event.
Chevrolet's campaign in promoting the Derby promulgated these ideas. However, Chevrolet's sponsoring of the All-American was ostensibly a money-making enterprise, and with the depression well underway by 1934 and programs like the WPA being implemented to bolster the economy, the idea of a kids' recreational program like the Derby—boys in cars—seemed an excellent marketing opportunity to sell its main product—cars—to their parents. During the depression, kids had little access to organized activities like team sports or television, so getting them get behind a national event like Derby was an easy sell. Chevrolet dealerships acted as agents for the derby, where kids would go to sign up and purchase wheels and axles to get started on their cars; and, since a child was usually accompanied by their parents, who waited patiently while their child filled out an application, it served as a surreptitious way of getting them to check out the latest models in the showroom.
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