huh, 1st time I've seen this. Was there really that much money or sponsorship in the national Soapbox Derby racing? To buy a Pullman 5th wheel?

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/341211-period-images-to-relieve-some-of-the-stress/page/691/

Sidney Kibrick, who played "Woim" in the Our Gang/Little Rascals shorts from 1933 to 1939, was the last surviving featured cast member. He passed away on January 2, 2026, at age 97.

https://www.boomermagazine.com/sidney-kibrick-remembers-our-gang
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/sidney-kibrick-dead-our-gang-little-rascals-1236465493

South Side Chevy was helping the kids out with the soap box derby

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/341211-period-images-to-relieve-some-of-the-stress/page/124/

Being a Mayor of Ventura and Santa Barbara, used to be fun

Don MacGillivray (left), the Mayor of Santa Barbara, after a Soap Box Derby against Charles Wesley Petit (centre), the Mayor of Ventura, in California, 3rd July 1965.

https://www.fineartstorehouse.com/michael-ochs-archives/fastest-mayor-west-41353319.html

terrific build idea for the Red Bull Soapbox

 

HBO Max has begun streaming the Red Bull Soapbox races, hosted by Dale Earnhardt Jr

intriguing... they registered vehicles as Soap Box Derby related, and issued them a license plate!

https://check_the_oil_promotions_llc.liveauctioneers.com/item/186202178_

back in the 1950s, in the prime years of soap box derbys, San Diego's used to be held on Valeta St, in Pt Loma. Huh... I went to one about a decade ago that was in Golden Hills.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=509756531181089&set=pb.100064402403964.-2207520000

from 2000 to 2004, the annual Goodwood Festival of Speed included soapbox derby cars

 

a low budget was mandated: £1000, or about $1275 as of this writing. Teams from legendary racing outfits like Prodrive, Bentley, Cosworth, and even Rolls-Royce entered, but as carbon-fiber wheels and high-performance bearings started showing up in builds, it became pretty clear that budgets were not staying meager. Crashes were relatively common also, even after the course was shortened a good bit. The Soapbox Challenge ran for just five years and now the cars only occasionally appear at the Festival of Speed.

https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/goodwoods-soapbox-challenge-should-make-a-return

Snoopy and the gang are having a soap box derby!

Lol, apparently the soapbox racers are a very secretly built bunch of carts, so Charlie and Franklin are rolling theirs toward the course masked by bushes, and Snoopy and Woodstock are building one behind the sheet 

Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin is now streaming on Apple TV+

mostly this video is an edit of the crashes in the Red Bull Soap Box races... but I find a lot of humor and fun inspiration in the great ideas they made into the variety of carts

Pretty cool paraphernalia for the Soap Box Derby kids, for 1954

https://auctions.morphyauctions.com/SHELL_1954_SOAP_BOX_DERBY_TOOL_ORGANIZING_BOARD_-LOT594296.aspx

it's pretty cool how much stuff shows up on the internet, like guys who have been reunited with their 1960s and 70s soap box derby winning cars

Above, Myron Neff won the Logansport Soap Box Derby in 1957, at age 14, and went to Akron for the finals, but the shipping company lost his car after that, and then it recently was discovered by Mike and Frank on American Pickers, and Myron bought it from the current owner

Jack Littleton captured the second Corning Soap Box Derby in 1966, Frank Hamm on the right, was the race director. 

A planned 1972 competition was washed out by the Tropical Storm Agnes flood, and that, combined with the loss of Chevrolet as a national sponsor, contributed to the demise of the Corning race.

https://www.carrollcountycomet.com/articles/local-man-finds-his-old-soap-box-derby-car-after-53-years/

https://www.stargazette.com/story/news/local/2015/05/21/corning-soap-box-derby/27709529/

soap box derby cars

 

Soapbox derby car "Nautilus vs. the Kraken" by faustandcompany

https://www.facebook.com/SteampunkTendencies/photos/a.335724989875207/4495586220555709/

Red Bull Soapbox from Des Moines. Not an interesting route, but, great creations on wheels

Hudson NY soapbox Derby days of the late 50's and early 60s

 

https://photobygibson.com/archive/collections/archive/Soap-Box-Derby/

https://photobygibson.com/archive/

coffee and donuts video, a few favorites of the Red Bull Soapbox Derby cars

 

lucky kids!

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/vintage-shots-from-days-gone-by-part-2.1154030/page-530#post-13567302

Did you know about Swede Savage? Famous for being the partner of Dan Gurney, racing the AAR Barracuda in SCCA,

 that Swede Savage got his start in motorsports, with a motor cycle, working with Evel Knievel in 1965

That's not how he got his start in racing though, he was soap box derby racing at age 5. 

In 1965 Savage dropped by Riverside International, when he heard that Dan Gurney was to be present at a test for the Ford Motor Company. The 20-year old Savage was showing off, popping wheelies on his motorcycle.

Struck by the young man’s skill and bravado, Ford signed him on as a development driver. 

The association with Ford brought Savage the opportunity to run a limited schedule in the NASCAR Grand National (now Sprint Cup) series in 1967.

Savage made his stock car debut at North Carolina’s Hickory Speedway with the legendary Holman-Moody team. He was running well before losing the engine 25 laps shy of the finish. His next two outings with the team, at Martinsville and North Wilkesboro, both resulted in top-ten finishes.

In 1968, Savage split his time between NASCAR, and running both USRRC and Can-Am with Dan Gurney’s All American Racers. In Grand National, Savage took a third place on the half-mile oval at Bristol, while he piloted Gurney’s powerful Lola Can-Am car to a top finish of fourth at the road course in Bridgehampton.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swede_Savage

https://motorsportstribune.com/remembering-swede-savage/