Bowie Living: Bowie's 2nd Annual Soap Box Derby, 1972

The 2nd annual Bowie Soap Box Derby took place on Sunday, July 8th, 1972. The following article by Bob Reid was published in the July 13th edition of the Bowie Blade.

Bowie Entrants Far Back In 2nd Annual Soap Box Derby
By Rob Reid
Bowie Blade Editor
Thursday, July 13, 1972

Bowie youngsters were superior only in numbers for the running of the 2nd Annual Soap Box Derby here last Sunday, with the top four finisher hailing from out of town.

The winner, after some 80 heats, was Daryl Freeman, a freckled-face 11-year-old from Bladensburg, running in his first Soap Box Derby competition.

His needle-nosed, gold Takoma Transfer and Storage Special flashed over the finish line in the championship heat a bare quarter of a length ahead of Van Hanson, a 14-year-old from Takoma Park.

Hanson, from a family of Soap Box racing brothers, was awarded second place, while last year's runner-up, Everett Parson of Brandywine finished third, beating distaff racer, Cathy Leavy.

The races were run down a 900 foot stretch of Race Track Road, and consumed 5 1/2 hours, much of the time spent returning the cars from the finish line back to the starting ramps for further heats.

Five girls were among the 40 contestants, and one, Linda Winpigler, an 11-year-old blond with a flowing mane from Frederick finished fourth.

The favorite of the crowd was Cathy Leavy, 12, a student at St. Pius school, whose flower-embroidered car captured the fancy of the fans.

Cathy, the daughter of William Leavy, last year's derby director, was clearly the better of her family entry with brother Steve, 13, who was eliminated earlier.

Because of her flower-power car, the fans quickly nicknamed her "the flower girl," and Cathy, as cool as a veteran Indianapolis driver, kept them on tip-toe until the 71st heat when she was finally eliminated by Linda Winpigler.

Only a single accident marred the day's races when Nancy Perret, a 13-year older from Pius X school applied premature breaking at the finish line, and spun out into the woods. The car suffered major damage, but Nancy was unhurt.

The derby, as it was last year, was sponsored by the Bowie Jaycees and Rogers Chevrolet. The winner, Darryl Freeman, received a $500 U.S. Savings Bond and the championship trophy, and earned himself a week-long trip to Akron, Ohio in August for the national finals.

George Sipe, zone public relations manager for the Chevrolet Motors Division, and Bill Rogers, owner of Rogers Chevrolet, were on hand to make the various presentations to the new champion, who confessed, "I never though I was going to win it."

Prior to the official racing, a pace race between last year's champion, Casey Muldoon, and Mayor Jim Conway in his bulky J.C. Supercar was run with Casey winning in 29.31 seconds.

By comparison, Freeman's winning time in the championship was 28.74 seconds, the second best time of the day. Earlier, Parson has posted 28.57 seconds in narrowly beating Cathy Leavy.

The Jaycees Marty Gear was this year's Soap Box Derby Director. "I believe we ironed out a lot of the problems of the first year," he said after the races, "and all in all, we had a good day of it."

Innovations this year included sophisticated communications by citizen's band radio, intercommunication between starting ramps, finish line, and public announcement systems, and photographic finishes.

The Bowie Jaycees have the Soap Box Derby franchise for all of Prince George's County, and entrants came from Upper Marlboro, Forestville, Bladensburg, Brentwood, Crofton, Glenn Dale, Pasadena, Oxon Hill, Rockville, Brandywine, Laurel, Camp Springs, Accokeek, as well as the 18 from Bowie.

All contestants were required to personally construct their own cars, but adult advice was allowed. No more than $50 could be spent, including the cost of standard racing wheels which must be purchased from Chevrolet, and the maximum allowable weight, driver and car, was 250 pounds.

For the first time this year in Bowie, many of the cars were of fiberglass construction.

The crowd peaked at about 2,000, but thinned as the long, hot, muggy afternoon wore on. There was also better crowd control this year, with snow fencing erected along the west side of Race Track Road to prevent fans from running onto the raceway.