SOUTH JORDAN, Utah — Twenty cars showed up Saturday for the first-ever Daybreak Soap Box Derby.
A racing strip was created on Kitty Hawk Road at Highland Park. There were two options; participants could purchase a kit or the car could be made by hand. In either case, the car had to be powered by gravity, one of the hallmarks of a soap box car.
KSL TV reported that several auto dealers donated car kits to South Jordan schools to encourage more participation.
Soapbox derbies have been part of the American landscape since 1934 and their origin story is humble. Myron Scott, a photographer for a Dayton, Ohio newspaper was given the assignment to photograph a group of kids racing their homemade cars in 1933.
“[He was] so impressed with the event that he acquired a copyright to Soap Box Derby and went in search of a corporate sponsor to establish a national program,” according to the soapboxderby.org website.
Chevrolet sponsored the first official derby in 1934. And other than a break taken during WWII, the derby’s been going strong ever since. Now, the International Soap Box Derby is a nonprofit youth education and leadership development organization.
Take a look at the creative freestyle cars raced in Daybreak in the above report from our sister station, KSL 5 TV.