Hyde Park Resident Lives Life in the Fast Lane

By Robin Gee

Faye Kilpatrick is not old enough to drive yet but she knows what it’s like to drive a bit fast and furious. This year and last, she competed in the Cincinnati Soap Box Derby, the local section of the All American Soap Box Derby. She came in fourth in both years with the help and support of her family, especially her dad Ryan Kilpatrick. He raced when he was a kid in Lima, Ohio.

“I was involved with that for probably 10 years when I was a kid, and my parents were race directors and everything up there. So it was just something I had always done. And then when I moved down here, we found out they had the race in Ault Park…I started to take Faye when she was maybe four. We’d just go to Alt Park and watch them, and she liked it. So when she was seven, we ordered the kit and got started,” Kilpatrick said.

Faye is now a third grader at St. Mary school and plans to continue to compete.

The Soap Box Derby has Ohio Roots

The first official Soap Box Derby race started in Akron, Ohio, in 1933. Dayton newsman Myron Scott had noticed young boys racing cars they had made themselves down a hill. He noted they looked like they were made from soap boxes. He thought it would be a fun idea if his paper would sponsor a series of races that summer, calling them Soap Box Derbies. His boss agreed, and the race was born. More than 300 kids participated and 40,000 people came out to the events. 

Later the General Motors Chevrolet Division became a sponsor, and the race was moved from Dayton to Akron. After the first year in Akron, city and sponsor wanted a permanent track. The federal government stepped in to help by constructing a track for the racers as a Works Progress Administration project, a New Deal program designed to employ out-of-work citizens.

The race is now hosted and managed by the nonprofit International Soap Box Derby, and includes participants from Europe, Central and South America and other countries as well as the U.S. The race itself is still called the All-American derby. In the beginning, only boys raced but in 1971, the race opened up to girls. Four years later, the first girl won the race.

Cincinnati first participated in the race in 1936 and ran continuously until 1978. The city did not have a race again until 2006, when it was restarted. This year marks the Cincinnati Soap Box Derby’s 20 years since its restart.  

Kilpatrick noted former Mayor Mark Mallory was instrumental in getting the race back to the city. Since then, it’s been a tradition for Cincinnati mayors to attend if they can. Mayor Aftab Pureval was on hand for the 2026 race. 

The mayor presents a “Mayor’s Cup” to the top finisher who resides within our city limits. Faye Kilpatrick won this year’s Mayor’s Cup.

The race is held the last Sunday of May each year. Leading up to the annual race in Ault Park, the organization sponsors a fun run in early May and the “Golf Manor Grand Prix” also in May.

The Cincinnati organization also hosts a mini car program, STEM-related gravity racing competitions for schools and a STEM education summer camp.

 The Soap Box Derby Car

In the past, part of the fun of the Soap Box Derby was building your own car. Kids would use anything they could find, wooden food boxes, tires off bikes, anything that would work. The cars have never had an engine — it’s always been a matter of ingenuity and gravity.

Today, kits are available for kids to build their own cars with an adult’s help. The kits cost about $1000, so many participants look for sponsors for their race. Faye Kilpatrick asked LaRosa’s, Griffin Financials and her dad’s employer GBQ partners to sponsor. Just as in professional racing, sponsors could add their logos to the cars.

The Cincinnati race purchased some cars to make them available to kids who may not have the resources to buy a kit and put it together. They wanted to make the race as accessible as possible to all children who want to participate, Ryan Kilpatrick said. Occasionally, you can find cars for sale on Facebook Marketplace as well. 

The race is open to children age 7 and up through age 21, with two divisions (stock and super stock division) based on age and weight of the participants. 

FUN is had by all

When asked about the experience, Faye Kilpatrick said, “I loved it! It was fun!” When pressed further on what she thought, she added, “It was just fun. I wasn’t expecting it to be as fun as it was.”

For more on the International Soap Box Derby organization see soapboxderby.org. For more information on Cincinnati’s Soap Box Derby see the website at Cincinnati.soapboxderby.org.