That and your other pics are cool! I was born and raised in Gaston and my Dad's "day job" was at Delco Remy! Long live Anderson, IN!!!!
My daughter and I just got back from a SBD race in Chatanooga Tn. For any HAMB'ers that might be interested there are races in Huntersville (Charlotte) NC, Morganton NC, Winston Salem NC, Columbia SC, Marietta GA plus more than I care to list in Va and WVA. It's not the same as when we were kids. In some ways, it's better. While I miss the creativity of the old cars, the racing itself is much closer. I'm trying to put together a race for Lowes Motor Speedway for the spring. I could use some help and some sponsorship.
Several years ago ('93 - '94?) a friend of mine had his kids involved in Soap Box Derby here (Titusville, Florida). There aren't any suitable hills in this town, but they had this big portable ramp/starting gate that they set up on a dead-end street and the cars raced for about 300 feet. I was told that there are different classes of cars now, but all the ones I saw here were plastic or fiberglass kit cars. Seems to me that ruins the original concept... Anyway, another big change I noticed was the wheels. All the cars had these plastic "dummy" wheels on them until they got to the staging lanes where the real racing wheels, owned by the derby organizers, were installed. Immediately after the cars finished a run, the racing wheels were removed and the plastic wheels put back on. The reason for this is to keep anyone from tampering with the wheels, using illegal lubricants, etc...
Yes, he was treated like a rock star. His parents later sent him to a military school because the girls would not leave him alone. He didn't talk much about it. I always thought that he felt like it was undeserved. He didn't say that, just my feeling. He passed away in 1994, but my mother-in -law is still alive. The trophys are still around. I have a lot of memorbilia from the early races. Buttons, programs, even the menus from the hotel they stayed at during the race. My mother-in-law gave us a box of stuff about a year ago and we were looking through it and there was a letter from Cp. Eddie Richinbacher that he said he was signing his latest book and sending it to my father-in-law. I told my wife wouldn't be something if we found that book. We asked my mother-in-law about it and she found it (and in perfect condition too) so we now have it in our possesion. My wife has four brothers and none of them are very interested in any of this stuff. My wife and I were coming back from Vermont about 5-6 years ago and we decided to stop in Akron to see the Soap Box Derby headquarters. We didn't know the cars still existed! They had all of the winners in a warehouse. We got to go in and we found the car. I have pics of my wife sitting in it, and me too! We are the only ones in the whole family that has even seen the car. My mother-in-law has never even seen it. The state of the SBD scares me. We would like to have the car. If the SBD ever filed bankruptcy I don't know what would happen to it. I would hate for some collector with no personal ties to it get it because he bid more at an auction.
As part of the rules, the championship car from the All American becomes the property of the All American after the race. I believe they have every car back to the very first one we know they have the second one . It would certainly be a shame if you couldn't get it back in the event that the whole thing goes bankrupt. Thinking back, it's almost gone under many times but seems to keep going.
You are right, they have every winning car. We saw the first winning car there. It was won by a guy named Turner from Muncie, Indiana. He used to have an automotive shop(an alignment shop I think) in Muncie. I think he passed away about 10 or so years ago.
heres one, i drove buy and noticed the thing sitting next to the guys house for about a year, and everytime we drove buy i told my wife Jen "hey that would be cool to have" so one day when she was driving by there was a guy there and she stopped and asked him about it, hes said "take it" so he gave it to her for free! cool yard art, to far gone to restore, but they had another one like it in perfect condition in the house. JEFF
I found some more pictures in the bottom of a box. I believe these were taken in Worcester Massachusetts in the Summer of 1978. There is a good shot of the ramp setup that we used. The dude in the shorts gives away that fact that it was the 1970s.
Sounds like my old down hill racer too! Mine even had a roof and suicide doors! Man it was cool (in my minds eye, anyway) Never did the official derby racing, but some of the kids in the neighborhood would build junk like this and race each other. It was fun none the less.........
The old steel wheels are on ebay all the time. Generally, they'll sell anywhere from 20.00 to a 100.00 depending on the condition. Although, I'd be hard pressed to pay the hun.
Any of ya'll have old SBD cars in storage, I'm planning a vintage Soap Box Show for our spring rally at Lowes Motor speedway.
Here is a picture of my 1st Soap Box Derby Car in 1971. I lived in Youngstown, Ohio, about an hour east of Akron. The local Jaycee group ran the race; it was sponsered by Chevolet. I won my 1st heat race and lost my second. I'll post more pics when I have time to scan them.
1973-74, Sierra Madre, California 1997 thats me on the right and my yellow car(complete with flames and rat fink decal) 1998
Great This one is my daughter Krista's heat from the All American this year. She is in the car in closest to the camera. The car in the center lane (Alex Seither), went on to win the Super Stock rally championship. The car in the far lan, Kristi Murphy finished third at the NDR nationals the next week. It still kills me to think we were less than a wheel length away from winning the whole thing.
This is our home track in Huntrsville Nc. The car in the near lane is 2009 national points champion Ambree Garren. Krista ran second to Ambree in seven consecutive races. I think some people stopped coming to our races because they knew before they got there the best they could do was third.
In 1979, my mom in dad were in the middle of splitting up. We didn't have the money, know how, or time to make one of the fancy fiberglass cars. So, I cut the top off of my old Jr. division car and converted it to a laydown. It was very close to being a really fast car. If I had known a little more about suspension and alignment it would've done really well. I still had some memorable runs in the car and I'm still as proud of that car as anything else've done. It was to my knowledge the first of it's kind. There were other people that converted their junior cars down the line and did very well some even placing in the top ten at Akron. I like to think that this car had something to do with that.
My two hot rods, circa 1951. Soap box derby racer, and Hiawatha Doodlebug. I won more races on the Doodlebug. JG
Wow - small world - the black car in the last picture was my friend - my dad and I helped him build his car at our house - his name is Randy Rose - note the #7 - my car is also #7 - please see post #14 in this thread -cool!!
The Jalopy Journal
