The story, the rules, and the track behind the nation's premier soapbox derby invitational.
Legacy. Weigh-in, inspection, and championship race.
Roundbottom, Stock, Super Stock & Masters. Roundbottom weigh-in, inspection, and championship. Weigh-ins, inspection, and qualifying races (time trials) for Stock, Super Stock, and Masters.
Time Trial Placement Ceremony. Racers discover their seed for the next day's championship race and choose their spot in the bracket.
Stock, Super Stock & Masters Championship. Another round of weigh-ins for Stock, Super Stock, and Masters, followed by their championship races.
Schedule is subject to change due to weather or other unusual circumstances.
Beginning in 1987, Travis Hayes, Keri Hayes and the extended Hayes family participated in and ran the Thanksgiving rally in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The annual Thanksgiving rally permitted derby families to come together over a holiday weekend of racing that often included a potluck style dinner and the implementation of a points system that allowed contestants to pick from assorted prizes based on their tabulated finishes after the weekend of races. Unfortunately, outside factors, most notably the deteriorating condition of the track, caused the annual event on Winston-Salem’s “Monster Mountain” to cease. Despite the Winston-Salem race no longer being held, the Hayes family continued to be heavily involved with soap box derby racing and the All-American Soap Box Derby (AASBD) and the National Derby Rallies (NDR) organizations.
In 2017 Travis and Keri were approached by Paul Gale about starting a new soap box derby organization that would allow derby families across the county to come together to compete in an invitational only race. It was Paul’s desire to have a race the same caliber as the championship races held by the AASBD and the NDR and that would attract racers and families that appreciated the competitive nature of the soap box derby, but that also represented themselves in an exemplary manner on and off the track.
Utilizing their relationships with derby racers, families, and volunteers that they had cultivated through their countless years of racing, the Hayes worked closely with Paul to implement Paul’s vision for a true championship race. In 2018 United States Derby Racing (USDR) became a reality.
Taking into account the dates of other major races and, more importantly, the fond memories of the Thanksgiving races in Winston-Salem, the Hayes, Paul and other dedicated derby enthusiasts determined that the invitational race should be an annual event held over the Thanksgiving weekend. In determining the location of the race, consideration was given to race cities that (i) were centrally located, (ii) able to hold a race in late November, (iii) had a dedicated track, and (iv) were home to derby families that shared the vision and love for derby racing exhibited by Paul, the Hayes and the other USDR supporters. Taking these factors into consideration, it became immediately clear to the collective group that the home of the new race should be Chattanooga, Tennessee.
In December of 2018 during a rally race in Sanford, Florida, Travis floated the idea of Chattanooga holding an invitational race to Michael Stewart, the local race director in Chattanooga. Like the Hayes family, the soap box derby has been a tradition in the Stewart family for multiple generations, and it did not take much to convince Michael and his wife, Kristy, that the home of “The Invitational” should be Chattanooga. In November of 2018, the inaugural Invitational race was held in Chattanooga. In June of 2019, United States Derby Racing, Inc., an Ohio non-profit corporation was formed to be the governing body of the USDR and to conduct The Invitational race. In 2023, the USDR celebrated the 5th annual Invitational!
Each year the USDR’s race committee spends countless hours selecting not only the most competitive racers, but derby families that exhibit the highest character, promote the underlying values of the sport, and that have a passion for the derby. The goal of the USDR is to attract families that not only strive for success on the track, but that also value the experiences provided by the derby. The USDR desires to involve families that want to strengthen parent-child relationships, make memories and associate with other similarly minded individuals. The top-level competition and the families that it attracts, makes The Invitational a race that is circled on the calendar by most derby families and those that are the “who’s who” of the sport. Since its inception, The Invitational has been a selective race with more applicants than spaces available. The substantial number of annual applicants results in the USDR racing committee having to make very difficult decisions when determining which contestants to invite. Essentially every year since its inception, The Invitational has had a long waiting list of racers hoping to get an invite. The large number of racers competing for the coveted spots in The Invitational is a true testament of the stature of The Invitational and provides evidence that The Invitational has become a major race in the sport of derby racing. The strength of the USDR organization continues to grow with the enduring involvement of dedicated individuals. The USDR organization is proud of what it has accomplished, and it looks forward to providing derby nation with an exciting, well-run and prestigious event for years to come.
Chattanooga, Tennessee has a long history with the soap box derby. In the very first All-American race held in Dayton, Ohio, Claude Alexander of Chattanooga finished second to Bob Turner of Muncie, Indiana. Claude would have very likely been the derby’s first world champion had it not been for the fact that faster racers were penalized with a delayed start.
Like many towns in America, Chattanooga held an annual local race throughout the 40s’, 50s’, and 60’s. In the mid to late 70s’, Chattanooga became a focal point of the soap box derby as the local Kiwanis club became heavily involved with the local race and a state-of-the-art racing facility was constructed. The newly built track mirrored the track in Akron, Ohio in slope and design. The existence of the new track and the central location of the facility played an important role in the rise of the NDR organization and the desire of those involved in derby to have the ability to compete in more than just one local race per year. NDR promoted a circuit of rally races where families could race throughout the year and collect points that would allow for participation in an annual national championship race.
In 1977 the first NDR national championships were held and in 1979 and 1980 Chattanooga hosted back-to-back NDR championship races. During the late 70’s and early 80’s derby racers in the Chattanooga area took advantage of the racing facility and the sharing of derby knowledge and expertise, and this led to several Chattanooga racers winning various NDR championships and garnering top finishes in the All-American race in Akron. Many of the successful Chattanooga racers aged-out of the sport in the mid to late 80’s and the Chattanooga derby organization consequently folded. However, a local group of racing enthusiasts formed an organization known as “G-Force” racing, and for a number of years the G-Force group used the old Chattanooga track. The G-Force contestants raced kit cars similar in design to today’s soap box derby cars in rally-type events in the fall and spring of each year.
In the early to mid-90’s, the old Chattanooga track was unfortunately lost to make way for the expansion of the adjacent landfill. The G-Force group, however, continued having races and convinced the local municipality to construct a new racing facility at the Redoubt Soccer complex. It is this track that now serves as the home track for The Invitational. The G-Force group held races at the new Chattanooga track until the early 2000’s, when that G-Force group disbanded.
Chattanooga’s current race director, Michael Stewart, moved to Chattanooga in the early 2000’s. Michael’s love for the soap box derby and his family’s years of participation led him to re-start Chattanooga’s local race in 2008. While never having an opportunity to race at the old Chattanooga track, Michael was certainly aware of Chattanooga’s prior prominent role in soap box derby racing history. When the idea of the USDR and The Invitational race was pitched to the Stewarts in late 2018, the Stewarts were intrigued by the idea and relished the opportunity to bring Chattanooga back into the national soap box derby spotlight.
Development of a new soap box derby wheel that would become the current UniGrip wheel began in 2014. Paul Gale, understanding the importance of having a more consistent and better made soap box derby wheel, contracted with TPC, Inc. (TPC) to produce a wheel with a one-piece injection molded disk (also called a rim or hub) that contained a rubber tread and that was cast onto the disk in block form and then machined to a final profile. The finished TPC wheel is one piece with bearings and bearing retaining plates. The Z-Glas wheel has a two-piece disk and separate tire sandwiched between the two disks, making the finished wheel three pieces with bearings. When developing the new wheel, it was Paul’s desire to introduce and donate sets of the new and improved wheel to the AASBD to be used initially in the Challenge Races, with the plan that it would eventually be used by the AASBD for all of the races held during the World Championship race week. The AASBD was informed of the creation of the new TPC wheel and updated on its progress.
Manufacturing of the TPC wheel was completed in 2015. Prior to the shipment of the new wheels to the AASBD, the AASBD decided it was not interested in using the TPC wheel and declined the generous donation. As a result of the AASBD’s decision, sets of the TPC wheels were donated to derby programs in Sonora, California; Omaha, Nebraska; Salem, Oregon; and Poulsbo, Washington. These local organizations used the TPC wheels in local races and rally races for a number of years until the AASBD issued a cease-and-desist notice making it against the rules to use the TPC wheels in any AASBD sanctioned races. In connection with the USDR’s desire to have consistency among wheels for The Invitational race, the USDR took advantage of the Omaha and Sonora derby clubs’ willingness to donate the wheels to the USDR, and the TPC wheel became the official wheel used in The Invitational.
Despite the AASBD’s initial rejection of the TPC wheel, the AASBD did recognize the need to implement the use of an improved wheel, and in 2022 the AASBD accepted the donation of the TPC wheel disk injection mold. The AASBD, in an attempt to allow for the production of a wheel superior to the Z-Glas wheel, but in an economic manner, value engineered the TPC mold by widening the disk and eliminating the screw holes that were used to attach bearing retaining plates. The re-worked mold produced the initial version of the UniGrip wheels, which were first used during the 2023 AASBD championship races. After the 2023 races, the AASBD tweaked the design of the disk injection mold to improve bearing retention. The new version of the UniGrip wheel was used by the AASBD for the 2024 championship races.
USDR is an independent invitational, but the sport it's built on goes back nearly a century.
The soap box derby traces back to 1933, when Dayton Daily News photographer Myron Scott organized a race of homemade, gravity-powered cars built by local kids in Dayton, Ohio. The idea caught on fast, and by 1934 it had grown into the first All-American championship.
In 1936, the event moved to a permanent home at Derby Downs in Akron, Ohio — a dedicated, paved track built specifically for the sport. Aside from a wartime pause in the 1940s, the derby has run for decades, evolving into the three divisions still raced today: Stock, Super Stock, and Masters.
USDR is an independently organized invitational and is not affiliated with the All-American Soap Box Derby (AASBD). Our cars are built from official AASBD kits, and USDR racing follows a similar ruleset.
Read the rules, check eligibility, and submit your team's application.
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