[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 80 (Tuesday, May 27, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E839]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                HONORING THE ALL-AMERICAN SOAP BOX DERBY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JUAN VARGAS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 27, 2014

  Mr. VARGAS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to one of the 
greatest amateur racing traditions in the United States, the All-
American Soap Box Derby. The Soap Box Derby is a youth racing program 
that has run in the United States since 1934. Cars competing in the 
Soap Box Derby are unpowered and rely completely on gravity to 
accelerate. During its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, when automobile 
manufacturers were national sponsors and famous television and cinema 
stars made special guest appearances at these races, as many as 70,000 
people throughout the United States gathered each August to cheer on 
hundreds of young participants.
  San Diego's first Soap Box Derby took place in 1939. In 1946, San 
Diegan Gilbert Klecan became the first West Coast participant to win 
the All-American World Championship, which is held every July at Derby 
Downs in Akron, Ohio. In those years, it was not uncommon to have as 
many as 300 cars racing along 6th Avenue downhill from Laurel Street. 
In the early 1970s, after automobile manufacturers pulled their 
sponsorship, the derby gradually faded in many cities. However, in the 
early 1990s the Kiwanis Club of San Diego Harbor and the Kiwanis Club 
of San Diego revived the derby and held races throughout the city. Then 
in 2002, Ben Hueso, now a California State Senator, and community 
advocate James Justus began organizing Soap Box Derby races in Sherman 
Heights, where it is now held annually.
  Every year, San Diego holds two races attracting hundreds of people 
from throughout the County. These races are held within the 51st 
Congressional district. A Rally Race is held late April in Encanto, and 
in late May, the San Diego Soap Box Derby Championship is held in Logan 
Heights. There are three racing divisions in both the San Diego and the 
All-American competition where boys and girls, ages 8 through 17, 
compete. Though many things have changed since the first San Diego Soap 
Box Derby in 1939, the goals of the program have not: to teach 
youngsters basic workmanship skills, the spirit of competition and the 
commitment to finish a project once it is started.