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Chattanooga Soap Box Derby drew 300 competitors, more than 3,000 fans
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| Troy E. Bowman | |
Where teenagers today know their way around a game system controller and cell phone, Troy E. Bowman of Chattanooga in 1949 knew his way around a hammer and chisel.
The then 15-year-old used those tools as one of more than 300 competitors that summer in the sixth annual Chattanooga Soap Box Derby.
“We didn’t have all the Xboxes,” said Mr. Bowman, “and there was no TV in town.”
The competition, which began in Akron, Ohio, in 1936, allows boys and girls to use their creativity and design skills to produce a youth race car.
“Being young, you think you can do about anything,” said Mr. Bowman, who is retired after a career with the Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration. “(This) felt like it was a project I could get into. I thought it would be interesting and fun.”
Younger entrants today use kits to build their cars, and older racers may start with a fiberglass body. But in 1949 competitors were given only four wheels and an axle.
“You got $25 from the sponsor to help pay for building the car,” said Brooks Northern, a 1949 racer who now lives in Hixson.
Billed then and now as “the greatest amateur racing event in the world,” it was held in Chattanooga in mid-July.
The course began at the top of the hill on
East Ninth Street (now Martin Luther King Boulevard), across from what was then Park Place School, and extended west on the street for 936 feet.
“It was very exciting to me,” said Mr. Bowman. “It was really a big event.”
A parade through downtown preceded the annual derby.
The Chattanooga News-Free Press, which sponsored the 1949 race along with Newton Chevrolet and Hailey Chevrolet, indicated that 3,000 to 4,000 people were expected to turn out.
Chattanooga Mayor Hugh F. Wasson issued a proclamation for the race, and Tennessee Gov. Gordon L. Brown and his wife were expected to be guests of honor.
Staff Photo by Patrick Smith -- Troy Bowman points out how he crossed the finish line to win a 1949 Soap Box Derby race in Chattanooga. Mr. Bowman was 15 when he won the race down Ninth Street, now M.L. King Boulevard.
Mr. Bowman, who competed only the one year, said he thought he might have had about six months to design and complete his car.
“They gave you plenty of time,” he said. “To me, it was really difficult work. There were not a lot of home power tools then. So it really was handmade.”
The rules prohibited parents from building the car, but they were allowed to help their child draw up plans and advise them.
It didn’t always work that way, said Mr. Northern, recalling that a Red Bank neighbor had a car built almost exclusively by his father and grandfather.
“We built the cars ourselves,” he said, “and they looked it. Some had cars that looked like they’d come out of a custom body shop.”
Mr. Bowman, then a resident of North Georgia, said he hammered out the body of his car from metal salvaged from a hot water tank. The chassis of the car was created from oak floor slats that were glued together.
The steering wheel was attached by cable to the front wheels, allowing the car to turn, Mr. Bowman said. The primitive brake was a piece of wood hinged to the car that stopped it by friction when pushed.
“It was a long, drawn-out process,” he said. “I’d get a little discouraged.”
Mr. Bowman said his father provided firm motivation.
“He said if you signed up for it, you’re going to do it,” he said.
After Mr. Bowman finished the car but before the race, his family’s Catoosa County home on Pine Grove Road burned down. Fortunately, his car’s sponsor, Joe Powell’s Shell Service, at the corner of Main Street and Central Avenue in Chattanooga, had picked up the car.
“I got to know (the service station employees) pretty well,” he said. “They were one of the larger stations in town. They were nice and helpful in any ways they could be.”
Mr. Bowman said there was no organized practice for the race.
“I jumped in that sucker and let it go,” he said. “That’s being youthful for you.”
The News-Free Press reported the 1949 race was expected to be the safest yet because of the wide distribution of detailed rules pamphlets.
“That this year’s cars are at least 35 percent better than in previous years is a recognized fact,” the newspaper reported. “Very few cars are on the borderline this year.
“Chattanooga, with several outstanding entries, could well be in the money at Akron. This might be our year.”
Racers went down the hill three at a time, Mr. Bowman said. Winners continued to the next round.
The then-rising Central High School sophomore said he won two heats but lost his third when the rain-delayed proceedings concluded four days after they began. His winning time in his first heat, 29.4, tied for the second best heat time, according to the News-Free Press.
The eventual winner of Mr. Bowman’s “A” division (ages 13-15) was Y.L. Coker Jr., 15, who was sponsored by his father’s Brainerd grocery store.
Mr. Coker, a Chattanoogan who is semi-retired from the real estate business, said the 1949 race was his fourth and last opportunity to compete because he would be too old the next year.
Going into the race, he said, there were “a couple of (my) cars I thought were better,” but that one probably had the “truest alignment.”
The “B” division winner, Howard Meador, voluntarily vacated his title after a misunderstanding about work his father did on the car, the newspaper reported. John Talmage then won a roll-off to take the “B” crown but was beaten by Mr. Coker in the championship race.
Mr. Coker said News-Free Press sports editor E.T. Bales, the race director, drove him and the 1948 Chattanooga champion to Akron in Mr. Bales’ woody station wagon for the All-American Soap Box Derby finals.
He said he won three heats to make it into the quarterfinals there before being eliminated. He said he has carried a number of lessons from his Soap Box Derby days throughout his life.
“I got a lot out of it,” Mr. Coker said.
“It was a big deal,” said Mr. Northern, who entered the race twice. “It was a nice part of growing up.”
COMING AGAIN
All-American Soap Box Derby competitions were held in Chattanooga in 1940-41 and 1946-49 (none were held throughout the country during World War II) and approximately 1976-1982.
A new competition this year will be staged on May 17 at the Redoubt soccer complex on Bonny Oaks Drive. For information, call contact Michael Stewart at 596-7726.
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This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Chattanooga Publishing Company, Inc.