The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Derby is an all-American tradition
In 1933 a newspaper photographer named Byron Scott was sent out on a photo assignment to capture two young boys who had built gravity racers and were going to race each on a nearby hill in Dayton, Ohio. Scott had such a good time with the assignment that he wanted to make it an annual contest, after all it was good for the newspaper. In 1934, Robert Turner from Muncie, Indiana, won the first-ever All American Race held in Dayton.
The following year the race was moved to Akron, Ohio, and that was the beginning of what became the “Greatest Amateur Racing Event in the World,” the Soap Box Derby. The race caught on immediately in both Philadelphia and Norristown.
In 1935, Norristown held races on West Main Street from Forrest Avenue down to Buttonwood Street. By 1936, a number of Conshohocken lads were building cars and entering them into the Norristown race, and faring rather well. Two years later Conshohocken announced its own race to be held on the Fourth of July on Spring Mill Avenue. Walt Cherry won both the 1938 and 1939 race. Unfortunately World War II brought a halt to the good times not only in Conshohocken but throughout the country.
Following a push-mobile 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 Fourth, 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 All-American Race.
John Kirkner of Dresher won the first race held in 1952 while Conshohocken resident Lowell Sibole came in second. Dresher was no stranger to soap box derby
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racing as he also competed in Philadelphia, Easton, Germantown, and Wildwood. Sibole won the following year. In the early days of he derby in Conshohocken a $25 spend-
ing limit was put on for all cars. Early race officials beside the Moore’s included Barney Rodenbaugh, Bob Burt, Joe Ryan, Jim Burt and Bernie Slavin.
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. 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 for the national title. It was also in 1976 that Janine Myers became the first female to win the derby in Conshohocken. In 1992 a third division was added creating the Senior, Junior and Stock divisions.