The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Highlights from 72 years of local races
• Norristown held its first Soap Box Derby in 1935, three years before Conshohocken’s first derby. Norristown’s race was sponsored by Sears & Roebucks in Norristown and offered all the prizes for the winners in the race. By 1937 Conshohocken boys started building race car’s and racing in Norristown’s event. Norristown’s race track throughout the 1930s was run from Forrest Avenue on West Main Street to Buttonwood Street. The street was blocked off to traffic, and ropes were put up along the track to keep the thousands of spectators from entering onto the track. Norristown held soap box racing for boys until 1970, when Matt Moore won the final Norristown race.
• More than 5,000 spectators attended Conshohocken’s first Soap Box Derby Race back in 1938, when Walt Cherry won a brandnew bicycle, presented to him by the Conshohocken Postmaster Jim Meaney. With no barriers in place to hold back the crowd, spectators wandered onto the track during the race, and one spectator was struck by a speeding soap box car and resulted in a broken leg, the race was held up long enough for an ambulance to arrive and transport the spectator to the hospital. Ropes were retrieved from the Number Two Fire Company, and the spectators all held onto the rope along Spring Mill Avenue to keep the crowds off the track.
• In 1956 13-year-old Charles Caikoski of East 13th Avenue beat Bob Laskey, earning the honor of flying to Akron, Ohio, to compete in the All-American National Race. Thousands of residents lined the race course under cloudy gray skies to watch Caikoski beat 50 other racers for the championship.
• While William McCloskey won the derby in 1961, most of the other contestants were happy to receive prizes offered up by businesses in the community. John DeJenno won a pocket pen donated by Conshohocken News Agency; a table tennis set went to Joe Wright, donated by Babytown; a game set, model airplane and steam shovel donated by Slavic’s went to Richard Racich; and a world map and steam shovel also donated by Slavic’s Candy went to Larry Mosakowski
• In 1964 Paul Schwartz finished in a dead heat with James Koniewicz in the championship round of the derby in front of an estimated crowd of 7,000 spectators. Young Swartz was crowned champion when he beat Koniewicz in a runoff by more than three feet to win a $500.00 savings bond and an all expense paid trip to Akron, Ohio to compete with racers from around the world.
• In 1973 girls were permitted by a court order to race in the Soap Box Derby across the country. The National Race in Akron, Ohio, would be forced to come up with a new logo, since 1934 the national race was billed as the “Greatest Racing event in the world for boys,” and now girls started to dot the tracks across the nation. That was the case in the Conshohocken 1973 race when Dennis Donovan, the Class B winner, was in a championship race with the Class A winner, who happened to be his sister Donna. While Donna goes down as being Conshohocken’s first female Class Champ, she eventually lost to her brother Dennis.
• On July Fourth, 1967, the first champion from West Conshohocken emerged when Gerald Brady of Ford Street beat out 75 other racers in front of 3,000 spectators. In 1975 Plymouth Township checked in with their first derby winner when 12 year old Frank Monastero Jr. of Terrance Road beat out another Plymouth resident Ernie Neve of Gravers Road. Winners of a $50 savings bond included John McAdam and Louis Nicolai.
• In 1976 the National Derby located in Akron, Ohio, split the derby race throughout the country into two divisions, a Senior and Junior division. In Conshohocken in 1976 Janine Myers won the Senior Division and Michael Manderacchi won the Junior Division. Janine was Conshohocken’s first female champion to win the local derby, with many more to follow in the years to come.
• In 1978 Michael Manderacchi of Audubon won the Senior Division and Jennifer Snyder of Lansdale won the Junior Division. Jennifer placed second in Akron, the highest finish by any Conshohocken racer in the nearly 60 years Conshohocken has participated in the Akron All-American.
• David Borzelleca won back-to-back championships in 1984 and again in 1985. Dave bested all Junior racers in the 1984 race, and did it again in 1985 in the Senior Division. Once a racer wins a championship in his or her division, they are no longer permitted to race in that division again. Perhaps the unique thing about Borzelleca winning two years in a row is that he might be able to say that he is the only racer over a two-year period to be able to say that he raced for two years and never lost a heat.
• In 1979 the derby was held up by rain, and had to be finished a week later. Hours are spent in preparing the race track on Fayette Street and hours are spent tearing the track down when the race is finished, but in 1979 with one race to go, that’s exactly what happened.Phyllis Rodenbaugh had one race to go with Chris Nasielski
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when the skies opened, forcing the race to be delayed for one week. The following week workers spent hours setting up the track for a 30-second run off and when it was over Phyllis Rodenbaugh became the third female to win a championship in Conshohocken’s racing history.
• In 1983 Isabel Monaghan and Charlene Bruno became the first female pair to sweep the Conshohocken derby for both the Junior and Senior championships.
• In 1985, Alissa DiCicco had won the Senior Division and moved onto Akron for the All-American Race with more than 200 children from around the world. Alissa appeared on “Good Morning America” for an interview that lasted several minutes, and she represented Conshohocken and Conshohocken’s Soap Box Derby very well.
• In 1992 the All American Race Board of Directors introduced three divisions that would now take part in all races, Stock, Junior, and Senior Divisions. In 1992 Evan Stead, won the Junior Division, Megan Donovan won the Stock Division, and David Donovan won the Senior Division. In 1993 it was a female sweep when Vanessa Racich, Kristen Donovan, and Tina Randazzo swept the three divisions.
• In 1998 it was a family affair when Katie Donovan, Ryan Donovan, and Eric Donovan won all three divisions.
• The Soap Box Derby became a nationwide success when a local photographer working for the Dayton Press was sent on a photo assignment back in 1933 to see two boys race homemade cars down a hill. Scott recognized a photo op for years to come. The first AllAmerican race was held in Dayton, Ohio, when Robert Turner from Muncie, Indiana, won the race. Every year since the race has been held in Akron, Ohio. From 1943-1945 no races were held in Akron due to the war.
• Of the thousands of racers who participated in the All-American Race in Akron Ohio since 1935, only 74 drivers from Pennsylvania have finished in the top nine positions, in which trophies are awarded. John Sigmans became the first Pennsylvania winner when he finished in third place in 1937. Darwin Cooper from Williamsport was the first of six firstplace champions to win it all in Akron. Karen Stead from Lower Bucks County is the only Pennsylvania girl to win a championship, on the international level back in 1975.
• Conshohocken has had seven racers finish in the top nine positions since 1952. Ed Myers finished in third place in 1974, when he set a national record for the fastest time down the track in soap box history, that record still stands to this day. While Conshohocken has never had a champion in 57 years of sending racers to the All American, it have had two second-place finishers, with Jennifer Snyder in 1978 and Shannon DeFusco in 2003. Other top-nine finishers from Conshohocken include Kristen Donovan, fourth in 1993; Kelly Stevens in 2002 and Jennifer Bokoski in 2006, both with sixth-place finishes; and Scott Giannini, who finished seventh in 1987.