On your mark, get set … for 25th Soap Box Derby

The force will be with racers at the 25th annual Cape Girardeau Soap Box Derby on Saturday, May 4.

The force of gravity, that is.

Twenty-six children will compete in a series of races, or heats, to determine which of them will move on to the 86th FirstEnergy All-American Soap Box Derby World Championship from Sunday, July 14, to Saturday, July 20, in Akron, Ohio.

This all-day affair will take place at Blanchard Elementary, 1829 N. Sprigg St.

Race director Dave Rigdon with Rotary Club of Cape Girardeau has spent months helping the racers build their cars and train to drive them.

“The kid builds the car. The car builds the kid,” he said. “We’ll take 7-year-olds who have barely ridden a bike … and they’re real scared, they’re real nervous. We’ll take them on a little hill, and we’ll slowly work them up; build their confidence up.”

Participating in a Soap Box Derby is not for the faint of heart.

“It is a race car; it will go close to 30 miles an hour. They’re sitting right down on the ground, so it will feel like 100 miles an hour to them,” Rigdon said.

Katie Carr races down Sprigg Street at the 2023 Cape Girardeau Soap Box Derby. The 2024 race on Saturday, May 4 will take place at the same location next to Blanchard Elementary School.Southeast Missourian file

Getting ready to race

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There are two categories of cars at the Cape Girardeau derby. Stock cars can accommodate drivers age 7 to 13 who are up to 5 feet, 3 inches tall and 125 pounds. Super Stock cars are built slightly different for larger drivers, aged 9 to 18 and up to 6 feet tall and 150 pounds.

This year’s North Sprigg Street competition features 16 Stock and 10 Super Stock drivers. For eight of the drivers, it will be their first race; others have been competing for several years.

To ensure an even playing field, all cars are bought as unassembled kits directly from the All-American Soap Box Derby organization. They have to weigh exactly the same and need to be made with the same materials and parts. All Stock cars must weigh as close as possible to 200 pounds, including the driver. All Super Stock cars must weigh 240 pounds with their driver.

Weight must also be distributed evenly throughout the car through the use of tiny ballasts. Otherwise, whoever is heaviest with the most weight up front would win. Races have come down to the wire, with literally a thousandth of a second separating the winners and the losers.

In another play at parity, two wheels of every car are swapped with the wheels of their opponent for every race: one pair in one heat, the other in the second.

“The wheels that you come with could cycle through all the cars,” Rigdon said.

Once drivers win their division in a regional race, neither they nor their car can race in that division again, at least for local races. After the drivers compete in Akron, their cars have holes drilled in them to ensure the floorboards cannot be reused.

Cape Girardeau Soap Box Derby race director Dave Rigdon oversees Owen Spencer, left, and his dad Nick as they work on Owen's Soap Box Derby car. Owen has been racing at the derby the last four years.Christopher Borro ~ cborro@semissourian.com

Drivers in the Stock division could race again in Super Stock if they so choose, as could older Super Stock drivers race in a college-aged Masters category.

Derby days

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The Soap Box Derby was a Cape Girardeau staple from the 1930s to the 1950s before being disbanded. It was originally hosted on Perry Avenue by Capaha Park.

In the 21st century, heats have shifted to North Sprigg Street, from Blanchard Elementary south to Bertling Street, which has a sufficiently steep incline.

“We call it a driver’s track. You have to know where you can go and where you can‘t,” Rigdon said. “There are some cracks that go right down the street and the kids either try to straddle that crack or they try to move over to one side and run alongside it, because if you get a wheel caught in it, you’re going to lose.”

Besides the thrill of racing, Rigdon said there are several reasons children might like to participate in a Soap Box Derby.

“It’s learning confidence, learning how to overcome your fears and learning how to perform under pressure. And, at the end of it, they’re having a ball,” he said. “It affords them all kinds of different opportunities, and you never know what’s going to pique a little kid’s interest.”

Rigdon teaches the drivers how to keep their cars straight and how to brake; they also learn about basic math, using different types of tools and how to properly follow instructions.

The derby also allows children to work on their cars with their parents, siblings and friends, building bonds along the way.

Cape Girardeau Rotary Club member Barry Winders (right) helps second grade students Gregory Cain (left) and Zeke Labruyere (center) with a Soap Box Derby car at Jefferson Elementary in Cape Girardeau. The boys were among a group of students who participated in designing and building their own car to race as a team at the local derby.Christopher Borro ~ cborro@semissourian.com

“You go to Akron, and you see that all over,” Rigdon said. “It’s a great family event. You get parents and kids working together.”

The world championships in Akron feature racers from across the world; Rigdon recalls seeing children from Japan and Ukraine, and the Soap Box Derby has branches in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the Philippines, as well.

Leaving a legacy

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Many, but not all, of the drivers in Cape Girardeau are the children of employees at Rushing Marine. Jackson resident Mike Rushing founded the transportation consulting company in 1995.

Rushing had been involved in the All-American Soap Box Derby since 2000, revitalizing the Cape Girardeau races for a modern era. He served on the organization’s racing commission and was elected to its Hall of Fame in 2022. Rushing died March 5, 2023, at age 79.

Rigdon took over Rushing’s role as race director, but he is far from alone in organizing the event. His fellow Rotary members volunteer with setting up, managing and taking down the event. Emcees volunteer to report on heats. Participants in a men’s recovery group at New McKendree United Methodist Church, Breaking Bonds, load and unload racers’ cars. A local farmer donates 75 straw bales, some $1,000 worth, to be used as safety barriers.

To support the derby financially, this year’s sponsors are Lawless Harley-Davidson motorcycles and www.CarsforLife. com, a used vehicle dealership, both in Scott City.

“People step up and do things to help out. That’s, to me, really one of the more satisfying things,” Rigdon said.