Ellwood City All American Soap Box Derby
The annual Soap Box Derby was a big event in Ellwood City. The day usually started at Lincoln High School where officials judged the race cars in the Lincoln High School gym. After the judging, the racers had to get their cars to the top of the hill at the intersection of Line Avenue and Pershing Street with race on the giant hill on Line Avenue.
1936 marked the beginning of the annual Soap Box Derby being run in Ellwood City. Bucky Kline won the first local derby and Ellwood City also sent cars that year to be on display in Akron Ohio where the National Championships were run each year. Young Mr. Sitler won best designed car in Akron. One of organizers of the Ellwood City Derby, Denny Schill, took a bus load of boys to see the National Championship Derby in Akron each year.
The Derby was held each year on the big hill on Line Avenue every year until 1967. Spectators used to line both sides of the street behind barriers that were little more than a rope. More than one person watching the races got injured, including broken legs, over the years as cars would crash into the cheering fans.
The last race on Line Avenue was in 1967 at which time the races were moved to Lawrence Avenue. The slower track had to have a large ramp installed at the starting line to help the boys get going. The last couple of races were moved to a longer and much faster course on Fourth Street. The new track proved to be more dangerous as only ten of the fifty five racers competed before and cars were reaching speeds of 30-35 miles per hour. It is estimated that three to four thousand people lined Fourth Street to see the races.
After Chevrolet stopped sponsoring the Derby, The Ellwood City Derby was sponsored by the Jaycees. Up to seventy five boys raced in heats of two with the winner moving on until the final winner was named champion. The champions over the years were…
1936 – Bucky Kline
1937 – Bob Sitler
1938 – Tom Sitler
1939 – Sherby Rodgers
1940 – Omar Newton
1941 – Jack Forsyth
1942 – 1945 – Races were suspended during World War II
1946 – Ken Bauder
1947 – Joe DeNome
1948 – Ray Colavincenzo
1949 – Amos Mazzant
1950 – Alfred Mazzant (also finished 5th in the country at Akron)
1951 – Boyd Gardner
1952 – Tony Trombello
1953 – Dick Lackey
1954 -Eric Bell
1955 – Robert Hartman
1956 – Ronald Cimino
1957 – Duane Weingartner
1958 – Randy Chesko
1959 -Ed Berendt
1960 – Larry Blews
1961 – Bundy Palatka
1962 -Tom Badger
1963 – Tark Kolch
1964 – Dave Chapman
1965 – Joe Gagliardo
1966 – Danny Boy
1967 – Gary Rychlicki
1968 – Johnny Fray
1969 – Bill Barkay (we’ve been informed Bill still has his car today)
1970 – Randy Houk
1971 – Ray Marinaccio
1972 – Unknown
1973 – Unknown
Unfortunately we do not have any pictures yet of the races or the cars themselves to put with this post. If you have a picture or a story you would like to share about the races in Ellwood City, please leave a comment below or email us by CLICKING HERE.
I grew up on Johnson (Johnston) Drive in Ellwood City and I remember that the Annual Soap box derby run down Line avenue hill was the biggest event of the summer. Kids would work all winter long with their Dad’s crafting a racer that might win a chance to go to Akron and compete against the best. Eric Bell, who won in 1954, lived two houses away from me and I watched him and his Dad (J. Ellis Bell, former Ellwood School Superintendent) closely as they put together his car. His older brother Bruce had run in the race several years and had assembled a pretty standard car, Eric was going to do it differently. He started by using a tree trunk as the body and built around that. The cockpit was hollowed out so that you could sit in it and the framework was built around the tree. The nose however which jutted out at an odd angle was solid wood. I must say, it was a very strange looking race car. Prior to the race all contestants had to assemble in the Lincoln Gym and have their cars weighed to ensure they did not exceed proscribed limits. Much to his dismay, Eric’s car was several pounds too heavy. Oh, what to do? Many ideas were brought forward including the radical removal of that solid wood nose. But Eric was having none of that. Instead he opted for the less invasive procedure of hollowing out the nose. They set to it at once and when they were finished and the car was reweighed, it passed the test. The rest, as they say, is history. Eric Bell won the Soap Box Derby that year in rather unconventional car and as I remember it; in his final run to the championship his car beat his competitor by just the length of that hollowed out nose.
Even though the Soap Box Derby is no longer run in Ellwood City, the youth from the area still compete in the races held in nearby towns. New Castle has held a number of races over the years and most recently, the race was held in Ambridge. One local racer, thirteen year old Alexis Gallaher, won in 2010 for the second year in a row. This year she won the super stock division after taking took top honors in the stock division last year. Like previous winners, Gallaher will now advance to the 73rd annual International Soap Box Derby race in Akron, Ohio to compete with approximately 600 participants in six divisional brackets.
I grew up on Lawrence ave during the late 40′s & 50′s. The Derby was on Lawrence avenue during that period. Maybe moved to Line ave in mid 50′s. I’m not sure but I think it was on the 4th of July.
Go to the Ellwood City Candy Store on Lawrence Ave, they have one of the soap box derby cars there. Talk to “Doc” Barsotti, I am sure that he can fill you in on all the details. The Barsotti family as been part of Ellwood’s history for many years. I guarantee that there will be many memories in that store!
Excellent history of the Derby!
With regard to the list of winners, I believe the 1958 winner was Randy Chesko. If there is still a ‘fiche reader in the Ledger archives, someone there could confirm.
My older brother entered a car in the 1956 Derby (rather boxy, painted orange with the number 714 in silver) and was one of many also-ran(s).
Best regards,
Scott
The 1964 Derby race won by Dave Chapman was ran on 4th st the starting line was on Hillside Ave his cousin Leonard Buddy Newton was in the race also
I remember the soap box derby going by our house on Lawerence Avenue right across from the SOI. Beside the SOI was a grocery store. My brother used to race in the soap box derby. Tim McFadden
One correction. I was in the 1957 derby and it was run on Lawrence Avenue. Somewhere stashed away I have a photograph of the Corvette with a pretty girl riding on the cover boot as the parade went up Lawrence Avenue. Makes sense now since the above article reminds us that Chevrolet sponsored the race. I also remember it being the 1957 derby because my racer had a fin I put on it like a ’57 Plymouth Fury. All “flash” and no functionality as I came in high on the losers list.
Having grown up on the North Side I remember the races coming down Line Avenue from the Walnut Ridge hill. I remember the hay bales set up as safety barriers along the route as there were injuries from the crates going so fast on that hill.
Thanks to Linda and Connie brown. If it had not been for their baby-buggy wheels Kenny Brown and I used to build…training racers…I wouldn’t have this next story to tell you.
Last story…it was the official derby wheels that were the key ingredient to speed. I spun those wheels for hours, putting graphite on the axles, to “run them in.” So after losing the official race, Kenny Brown and I mounted those wheels on a 2 x 8 board to make a double-seater crate. Whatever that street is all the way up behind the North Side Elementary School running parallel to North Street is where we “put the board to its test.” Kenny was up front. I was in the back working the brake, which was an iron pipe put down a hole in the board and dragged on the cement street. We went whizzing down the hill, out of control, and I hit the brake…only the metal got so hot I couldn’t hold on. We crashed into the curb just before the intersection of Hazel Avenue, Kenny having left a good portion of his knee on the curb. I still take responsibility for not having braked right. When we got home Jean Brown put enough micurechrome on Kenny’s leg he glowed in the dark. What a ride. A one-time sled, retired so we’d live for another summer.
Recently we visited the Marble Museum in Akron, OH. There was a Soap Box Derby display with an Ellwood City helmet as one of its features. We were curious as to whose it might have been and why it was there? We were proud to see it was from Ellwood.