Tacoma’s Soap Box Derby became a late-July tradition from 1936 to 1973. It drew thousands of spectators and crowned two national champions before a scandal shut it down. A crowd of 6,000 packed the sidewalks along Yakima Avenue on July 18, 1936, to see 14-year-old Ellsworth Staley win Tacoma’s first Soap Box Derby.
The derby was a growing national craze when Edwin Johnson, a News Tribune advertising director, talked his publisher into sponsoring a local race. The event became so popular that it generated a $100,000 track and two national champions before dwindling sponsorship and a national scandal put the brakes on it in 1973.
Yakima Avenue between South 25th and 29th streets was the first of five Tacoma derby courses. Junior Alexander and his “Tacoma Special,” escorted by siren-blasting motorcycle cops who shooed spectators to the curbs, won the historic first heat in a sluggish three minutes.
The sons of the early derby drivers would shine in the 1960s, when five Tacoma racers placed in the top 10 at the national championships in Akron, Ohio. By then the Kiwanis Club had joined The News Tribune and Chevrolet as sponsors and built an official 997-foot track at South 19th Street and Bantz Boulevard.
Among the 1937 derby drivers was Jim Marzano, who directed derby workshops and mentored 20 local winners, including his sons Dave (1957) and Gary (1962).
By 1938, Yakima Avenue had been dubbed Derby Hill, crowds topped 8,000, and KVI radio broadcast the action as Harold Freiter won the trip to Akron and a new suit from the Rhodes Brothers store.
When David Gabbert of Kent won the 1939 race in a fleet 33.3 seconds, the derby featured repair pits, a first-aid tent and a National Guard communication system.
The derby became a regional event a year later, when South Tacoma’s Don Davenport upheld Tacoma’s honor by defeating racers from Seattle, Bremerton, Everett, Bellingham, Sumner, Puyallup, Olympia, Hoquiam and Centralia.
The race was discontinued during World War II, but returned in 1946 on the unused road from Jackson Avenue to the ruins of Galloping Gertie, the collapsed Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
Champion Frank Paige recalled years later that rows of heavy tarps at the finish line kept racers from joining Gertie at the bottom of the bay.
YOUNG CHAMPS
Construction of the replacement bridge sent the 1948 race downtown, where it started in front of The News Tribune building on St. Helens Avenue and ran from Seventh to Ninth streets.
Future politician Joe Stortini, 15, enjoyed his first 15 minutes of fame by beating Glenn Swanson, 12, in the final heat before “going home to one of mom’s fine spaghetti dinners.”
In 1949, the race was moved to a hill on South 38th Street that ran toward South Tacoma Way. It stayed there until the Kiwanis track opened in 1957.
The new track gave derby hopefuls a place to practice with their heavily laquered, torpedo-shaped creations, many decorated with a sponsor’s logo.
On race day, spectators crowded the trackside fence while 50 or so racers passed weight and wheel inspections. There was a lot on the line: A year’s work could be over in 30 seconds if a racer lost his first three-car heat.
In 1960, a British lad, John West, became the city’s 20th champion. West became an American citizen the day after his Tacoma victory and went on to place second at the All-American Soap Box Derby in Akron. It was the first time a Tacoma racer had finished in the top 10.
West used an innovative style – keeping his head submerged and peeking every few seconds to check his progress – to post the fastest heat of the day with the sleek black car he had spent more than 1,000 hours creating. He also took home prizes for best constructed car and fastest average heat time.
Stan Gorski won the 1961 race after borrowing a spare wheel from Gary Marzano, then using it to beat Marzano in the championship heat. Marzano’s sportsmanship was rewarded when he won the trip to Akron in 1962. In 1963, Tacoma champ Joel Gorski, Stan’s brother, placed ninth in Akron.
Tacoma produced its first national champion in 1964. Greg Schumacher, 14, set a Kiwanis track record of 25.9 seconds in a white racer made of ironwood and fiberglass. He beat 237 racers in Akron to earn a $7,500 college scholarship and a trip to the World’s Fair in New York.
A RECORD 25.7 SECONDS
Schumacher got the derby bug from his father, Russell Schumacher Jr., who raced in Tacoma’s first three derbies. So did 1965 champion Don Campbell, son of 1936-38 racer Clarence Campbell. The younger Campbell set a course record of 25.8 seconds en route to a fourth-place finish in Akron.
The derby crown returned to the City of Destiny in 1966. David Krussow, 12, won the Tacoma derby before a crowd that overflowed to the Cheney Stadium parking lot. He returned from Akron with Tacoma’s second national championship.
While 1960 national runner-up John West was putting his $4,000 derby scholarship to use at the University of Washington, his brother Dave won the 1968 derby.
Dave West won several awards, but the Edwin Johnson Award for best brakes eluded him. His car threw a brake shoe at 32 mph and he ended a heat in an off-track cloud of dust. After a quick repair, and with the help of speed-friendly 90-degree weather, he set a course record of 25.7 seconds. In Akron he won the award for best-designed car.
In 1969, a week after humankind conquered gravity to walk on the moon, James Maddock, 11, won the “Gravity Grand Prix” in a day marred by an injury. Scott Corvin’s car crashed into a pickup, sending him to the hospital with a fractured nose. Corvin, 12, won redemption when he nosed out Steve Broback to win the 1970 race.
THE END OF THE ROAD
Events over the next three years conspired to doom the Tacoma derby. Chevrolet’s maverick general manager, John DeLorean, canceled the company’s national sponsorship after the 1971 race. The News Tribune followed suit in 1972.
In 1973, a cheating scandal scared away potential new sponsors for the national race.
Jimmy Gronen, 14, of Boulder, Colo., was stripped of his national title for using an electromagnetic system to boost his car when it left the starting line.
The electromagnet was mounted in the nose of the car, which rested against a metal starting gate. When the gate was dropped, the magnetic attraction pulled the car forward.
Gronen’s uncle, an inventor whose son was the 1972 champion, said he approved the system because rule-breaking was widespread. A veteran crew worker agreed, reporting that 67 construction violations had been overlooked in the 1973 race because officials didn’t have the heart to disqualify contestants. Many racers exceeded the $40 limit on materials, but it was estimated that well over $10,000 had been spent on Gronen’s car.
The 1973 derby was Tacoma’s last. In the 35 years since, Mother Nature’s brushy embrace has hidden the abandoned Kiwanis track from drivers passing by on Highway 16.
A mere derby heat away, across South 19th Street, is the office of Dr. John West, the 1960 champion who used his scholarship money to become a successful endodontist.
The derby has endured, but it no longer enjoys the level of popularity that convinced actor Jimmy Stewart to cancel a weekend of Broadway performances so he could attend the 1947 championship.
The Kitsap Soap Box Derby Association is sending five boys and girls to this week’s championships in Akron. But they’ll compete before a fraction of the 70,000-plus crowds that once made the All-American Soap Box Derby one of America’s top five sporting events.
Pat McCoid: 253-597-8272
Our 125th Anniversary
This is one of a series of stories appearing during The News Tribune’s 125th year. Every Sunday we’ll take a look at what happened during the same week sometime in the past 125 years. To suggest a week or an event for an upcoming story, e-mail your idea and any details to randy.mccarthy@thenewstribune.com">randy.mccarthy@thenewstribune.com. the Champions of Tacoma Soap Box Derby
1936 Ellsworth Staley
1937 F. Eugene Riggs
1938 Edwin “Harold” Freiter
1939 Dave Gabbert
1940 Don Davenport
1941 Edward “Ned” Bliss
1946 Frank Paige
1947 David Baird
1948 Joe Stortini
1949 Duane Swanson
1950 Harold Jardeen
1951 Richard Johnson
1952 No race due to newspaper strike
1953 Duane Hopper
1954 Harold Harvey
1955 Don Frederickson
1956 Bobby Booth
1957 Jimmy Stewart
1958 Dave Marzano
1959 Warren Lusier
1960 John West (second place at nationals)
1961 Stan Gorski
1962 Gary Marzano
1963 Joel Gorski (ninth place at nationals)
1964 Greg Schumacher (national champion)
1965 Don Campbell (fourth place at nationals)
1966 David Krussow (national champion)
1967 Rick Peterson
1968 David West
1969 James Maddock
1970 Scott Corvin
1971 Brent Michaelson
1972 Bob Sargent Jr.
1973 Gary Mahoney
