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Between 2000 and 2004, one of the Festival of Speed's
most talked-about events was the Goodwood Gravity Racing
Club Soapbox Challenge. This was a spectacular race
down the hill for cunning gravity-powered devices made
by some of the brightest minds in motor sport design.
Soapbox racing came about in 1933, when American
newsman Myron E Scott encountered three boys racing home-made
carts down a back street in Dayton, Ohio. He was grabbed
by the potential of this amusing spectacle, and arranged
a coasting race for the boys, their friends and a motley
collection of machines made from orange crates, tin sheets,
buggy wheels and other 'junk'. This he christened The
Soapbox Derby.
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| From a 19-strong grid of Ohio
schoolboys, the Derby blossomed into a fiercely-contested national
competition, with the overall winner racing against an international
field from Canada, South Africa and even Hawaii for the title of World Champion.
At its peak, the All-American Soapbox Derby attracted 25,000 entrants in 120
races, and drew an estimated crowd of 1.5million people nationwide. In Britain,
the National Soapbox Association (NSBA) organised annual championships until
1994, holding rounds in village locations and on private roads, sometimes attracting
more than 100 entries. |
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At the Festival of Speed in
2000, Goodwood initiated a revival of this exciting sport,
drawing together 24 teams from race and road car manufacturers,
plus a handful of enthusiastic privateers. Among the drivers
pitting their skill and ingenuity against Goodwood's daunting
gradient were Sir Stirling Moss, Barry Sheene, musician Jay
Kay of Jamiroquai and Lord March himself. The competition went
on to become a tremendously popular feature of the Festival Goodwood’s
unique regulations restricted overall size, shape
and concept, while still leaving plenty of scope for
design innovation. The result was close and spectacular
racing unlike anything else in the motor sport world.
Unfortunately, Goodwood has decided not to stage the Soapbox
Challenge at the Festival of Speed this year. This is principally
because the Soapbox Challenge has outgrown the scope of
the Festival, demanding more time and dedicated resources
than the Festival is currently able to offer.
However, potential soapboxers might be interested
to learn of a charity soapbox event with similar
regulations to Goodwood’s, which is staged
in Herefordshire each June. For further information
please contact:
Calan Edwards
Yew Tree Cottage
Mansel Lacy
Hereford
HR4 7HQ
Tel: 01981 590625
E-mail: calan.edwards@btinternet.com
Alternatively, you might learn of other UK gravity racing events by contacting
the UK Gravity Sports Association. For details, please e-mail Derek Round via
derek.round@tesco.net.
For the latest news on the Festival of Speed, click
here
Click
here for Soapbox Challenge Regulations Page
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For further information please contact: • email:
competitors@goodwood.co.uk |
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