Winning might not be everything. But don’t tell that to two kids competing for a $5,000 college scholarship, a handshake from NASCAR star Jimmie Johnson and a live interview on ESPN.
“The [adults] are always, like, `It doesn’t matter whether you win or lose.’ But it’s always more fun to win,” Maddie Quinn, 12, of Pleasanton, Calif., told fellow competitor Michael Neely on Saturday just before the medal round of the 69th All-American Soap Box Derby. Michael, 14, of North Canton, Ohio, nodded in agreement: “Yeah. I mean, hey, we like to win too.” And win he did. With hundreds of fans–mainly parents and friends of racers–braving rain and shaking cowbells and blaring air horns, Michael won the derby’s stock division in his 200-pound, motorless car. Looking stunned, he shook Johnson’s hand at the finish line and gave a quick on-camera interview to ESPN before falling into his parents’ embrace. Michael was one of six national champions crowned Saturday at Derby Downs racetrack, ending a competition that included more than 500 kids from 40 states and five countries. But officials believe the venerable derby organization–which almost put out the flag of defeat 30 years ago–was the biggest winner after ESPN broadcast the event live, giving it perhaps the largest television audience in its 69-year history. “Oh, it’s a super big deal” that ESPN put the derby on live, derby Executive Director Tony DeLuca said after an army of volunteers managed to get the race finished by ESPN’s 5 p.m. CDT deadline. Racers like Michael proved their determination and character, qualities the derby has espoused since its founding in 1934. And the fact that the national championships took place at all–with financial backing from major corporations such as Levi Strauss and NASCAR–proved something else: the value of three decades of adaptation by an organization that still sometimes battles the perception that time has passed it by. “People sometimes ask me if there’s still a Soap Box Derby,” said Jeff Iula, the derby’s general manager and historian. “I tell them, `Absolutely.'” Glory days In the derby’s heyday in the 1950s and 1960s–when it was a cultural phenomenon–more than 20,000 boys across the country competed in 250 local championships. Akron would come to a halt as 30,000 people flooded into town to watch race day alongside Hollywood celebrities brought in by the corporate sponsor, Chevrolet. But when Chevrolet pulled its sponsorship and its $1 million in support in 1972, participation dropped. More than 100 local clubs closed their racing hills the next year. The sport had as few as 83 clubs in the mid-1980s. “It was pretty bleak,” said DeLuca, a retired county sheriff who used to guard the celebrities at the derby each year before he became executive director in 1989. The first change the derby made to try to win back supporters was to allow girls in 1972. It didn’t have an immediate impact, but later changes would encourage them to participate, including creation of a rally series and two new classes of cars, which both allowed more kids from 8 to 17 years old to compete. Then in 1992 it bowed to the modern family and started selling easy-to-build kit cars, rather than requiring families to build them from scratch. It reduced the time needed to make a car from months to an afternoon. “We knew we had to come up with something simpler to build,” DeLuca said. “People don’t have the time anymore.” The result has been steady growth. Over the last decade the percentage of girls competing in derby races has gone from 20 percent to 44 percent. Two of the six champions crowned Saturday were girls. And there now are 160 local clubs across the country–a fact corporate America has noticed. In addition to Levi Strauss, the named sponsor of this year’s race, and NASCAR, corporations including Toyota, Dodge, Goodyear and Pokemon trading cards also are backing the event. Slice of Americana For many parents, the derby is a pure slice of Americana to hold on to, which may help explain corporate America’s interest, said Raymond Schuck, a popular culture instructor at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. “Sports are seen as a transmission of values from one generation to another–teamwork, sportsmanship,” Schuck said. “Soap Box is part of that.” Jeff Wobrak, 43, of North Huntingdon, Pa., was one of the many proud parents of racers who lined the racetrack and followed their children up and down the 989-foot-long Derby Downs hill Saturday. “Remember, it’s just for fun,” Wobrak told his daughter, Mikayla, 11, before her first run down the hill. “Win or lose, it’s just for fun.” Mikayla finished 8th in her division, earning herself a trophy. But her father saw another reward. “Ever since she won the local [derby qualifier] I’ve seen her confidence shoot up,” Wobrak said. “It’s been amazing to see.”
