The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
TRADITION RACES ON
Born on the Fourth of July: Annual Soap Box Derby to take place Wednesday Record number of racers: This year 57 girls and boys registered to compete
As a kid, Mark Marine watched his share of Conshohocken July Fourth Soap Box Derbies from the sidelines, but the borough native never steered a racer of his own down the sloping Fayette Street course that’s been the site of the local event since the early 1950s.
That said, the genial Marine has spent much of his adult life in the thick of things — initially as parent to derby champs Mark Jr. and Ashley and since the late 1990s as derby director.
This year, things are even thicker than usual. Fifty-seven girls and boys are registered for the 2018 competition — way more than the 39 to 40 participants officials have seen of late.
“Why?” Marine asks rhetorically.
“I don’t know … word of mouth, maybe. I do know we have one group of something like eight kids all coming from the same neighborhood or baseball team. But it’s hard to say. We’re just glad the numbers are up.”
Among 2018’s 57 aspiring champs, “14 to 18 kids who are brand new to the race, which is a challenge for us … but still a great thing,” says Marine, who also serves as All-American Soap Box Derby regional director for Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. “We’re happy to have them.”
His advice to the newbies?
“Practice, practice, practice,” he continues. “We have at least two or three kids who do [racing] rallies throughout the year. They can go to [nationals in] Akron on the basis of rally points … meaning a certain number of points qualifies them for Akron even if they don’t win the local race. So those kids come into the local derby with lots of experience.
“Besides practice, I’d say, get yourself familiar with your car and run it down a hill somewhere before July Fourth.”
Conshohocken AMBUCS has sponsored the local derby since the early 1980s. Drivers must turn 7 by July 3 and age out at 18. This year’s competitors are mostly local, but some come from as far away as Drexel Hill and Exton. Participants pilot sleek, fiberglass cars in Stock, Super Stock or Masters Divisions, depending on age and experience, and the day’s top racers earn the right to compete during FirstEnergy AASBD’s World Championships at Derby Downs in Akron, Ohio. The 2018 event is scheduled for July 15 to 21.
All of which is a far cry from Conshohocken’s earliest derbies.
American Legion’s John F. DeHaven Post sponsored the borough’s first — boys only — soap box race along Spring Mill Avenue between Cherry and Jones streets in 1938, and Conshohocken native Walt Cherry took first place in a plywood and 2-by-4 racer he nailed together in his family’s garage and named “Blue Comet.” His prize was a brand new blue and red bike with balloon tires, horn and light donated by Conshohocken postmaster and sporting goods retailer Jim Meaney.
Local historian, author and photographer Jack Coll maintains an extensive file on the derby, and his data includes numerous articles from the former Conshohocken Recorder — among them, one dated July 5, 1938:
“The weather was ideal and a crowd estimated approximately 5,000 persons jammed both sides of the avenue and surged out on the course which at times interferred [sic] with starting the various rarces [sic],” the newspaper noted. “… the large attendance far exceeded the expectations of the committee in charge as well as the police and preliminary arrangements made no provisions for roping off the thoroughfare. As a result the crowd swarmed out on the course following each heat and as a result the races were slowed.”
According to Coll, Cherry also won the borough’s 1939 derby.
“Unfortunately, World War 2 brought a halt to the good times not only in Conshohocken but throughout the country,” he continues in one essay. “Following a pushmobile race in 1951, Edward Moore, owner of the Chevrolet dealership at 12th Avenue and Fayette Street and William A. Moore, then president of the Conshohocken Chamber of Commerce, decided to team up to bring the Conshohocken community a full day of events on July 4th, in hopes of keeping residents closer to home and off the dangerous highways.
“The Moores applied for and were officially sanctioned a soap box derby race for the borough of Conshohocken, meaning that the winners of the race would receive an all-expenses paid trip to Akron, Ohio, to compete in the AllAmerican race.”
Coll, currently completing a piece about the AASBD “magnet car scandal” in the mid-1970s for his ConshyStuff blog, points to some of the changes that have affected the derby over the years.
“In the early days of the race, it was a single-elimination contest and later became a double-elimination race with wheel and lane swaps, giving each participant at least four runs down the track before they could be eliminated,” he recalls. “In 1976, the All-American in Akron, Ohio, created two divisions, adding a junior and senior division, allowing two racers per year to compete in Akron the national title. It was also in 1976 that Janine Myers became the first female to win the derby in Conshohocken (following the rule change that allowed girls to compete in 1973). In 1992, a third division was added, creating the Senior, Junior and Stock divisions.”
Coll’s derby perspectives were also shaped by the summers his now-adult son, Brian, and daughter, Jackie (a 1990 winner), competed.
“And participating in the Conshy soap box derby is frequently a big family thing,” he says.
Marine agrees, although he can’t predict whether that “family thing” will extend to his two out-of-state grandchildren.
“My grandson turns 7 next year, so maybe … who knows,” he laughs.
July 4’s Conshohocken Soap Box Derby is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m.
Additional information about the FirstEnergy AllAmerican Soap Box Derby is available at soapboxderby. org.