“SOAP-BOX DERBY”
(From Oub Own Correspondent) SYDNEY. Oct. 26. Between 7000 and 8000 people lined half a mile of road at Prospect (South Australia) to sec 125 boys contest Australia’s first “ Soapbox Derby.” For nearly three hours contestants ranging from eight-year-olds to veterans of 14 bumped, skidded and rattled down a hill in their billy-carts. Crash-helmeted speed demons defied all the laws of grown-ups and laws of safety and rocketed over the bumps in the bitumen. Twenty miles an hour was easy, even to the slowest of the speedsters. There were no serious crashes, but the huge crowd pressed so far on to the road that they were in danger of being hit by one of the bucking soap boxes. Amazing skill and nerve were shown by the boys in the control of their crazy conveyances. Police officers and officials of the Racing Drivers’ Association, which sponsored the Derby, were kept busy pushing the crowd back. The winner of the contest received a bicycle.
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Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 23648, 4 November 1938, Page 12
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164“SOAP-BOX DERBY” Otago Daily Times, Issue 23648, 4 November 1938, Page 12
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