The Scotts Bluff Soap Box Derby: thousands of spectators on Summit Road

The first Soap Box Derby at Scotts Bluff National Monument, in 1939, drew an estimated 10,000 spectators, and their cars blackened the horizon as they hunted for parking. It was an unofficial event held at the foot of the monument almost every year from 1939 to 1951, apart from the war years.

Cars spread across the Scotts Bluff prairie. Image from NPS’s page.

How it began

The National Soap Box Derby is a youth car racing program that started in Dayton, Ohio, in 1934 when a group of friends built racing cars from scraps of lumber. In 1935 the race moved to Akron, Ohio. In the 1950s and 1960s the Akron race drew up to 70,000 spectators. Today it includes boys and girls, draws more than 500 entrants from 43 states and 3 countries, and holds its World Championship finals each July at Derby Downs in Akron. The cars have no motor and rely on gravity.

At Scotts Bluff in 1939, the parking area filled with cars belonging to an estimated 10,000 parents, relatives and friends. Snow fences protected the summit road, and it soon filled with spectators. A boy from Minatare, Nebraska, won the first derby, beating his cousin.

The scene at the first Soap Box Derby at Scotts Bluff National Monument in 1939. Image from NPS’s page.

Crowds

The car and the track

The rules for cars of the time were:

• The driver had to build the car, but could get adults’ advice.
• Cars were unpowered and relied on gravity.
• The base was a two-inch pine plank, with plywood sides and sheet aluminum on top.
• The car had to sit 3 inches above the ground with the driver in it, and could be at most 80 inches long.
• Car and driver together could not weigh more than 250 pounds.
• The car could cost no more than $10.00 to build.

The paved, sloping Summit Road leading north from the Visitor Center made a course for the young racers. The race distance was 1,050 feet on a slope not exceeding 9%, wide enough for at least three lanes. A regular passenger car should be able to start from a standstill and coast over the finish line at slightly over 20 miles per hour. A race took approximately 30 seconds.

The lower part of the Scotts Bluff Summit Road makes an ideal soap box track. Image from NPS’s page.

The race day

Cars went through a preliminary inspection, which gave racers a chance to make changes, then a final inspection and a test run. After the test runs, Summit Road reopened to visitors. Only cars that passed final inspection could race. Boys aged 11 to 15 on the day of the race were eligible. The winner got a trophy and an expense-paid trip to Akron, to represent Scottsbluff in the Grand Championship Finals, where he could compete for a four-year scholarship at the university of his choice.

The 1951 Scotts Bluff Soap Box Derby. Image from NPS’s page.

The end

The last regular derby at Scotts Bluff was in 1951, with about 850 people. Lack of interest and too few entrants were among the main reasons it stopped. In 1939, 1940, 1941 and 1946 Rocky Mountain National Park helped regulate traffic and park cars. In later years monument staff handled it themselves, except in 1947, when the Nebraska State Safety Patrol helped manage traffic nearby. In 2012, for the first time in 61 years, a sanctioned Soap Box Derby ran at the monument, before an audience of 200.

Sources

• National Park Service, Scotts Bluff National Monument, Soap Box Derby at Scotts Bluff; two photographs showing racers and a duplicated photograph are left out; rewritten in hubnx's own words.