Soapbox Challenge

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.

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.

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, the late 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.

In 2005 Goodwood decided not to stage the Soapbox Challenge any more. This was principally because the Soapbox Challenge had outgrown the scope of the Festival, demanding more time and dedicated resources than the Festival was 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.

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