Soap Box Derby Software developed by a team of Soap Box Derby Race Managers

Soap box derby racing has been around since 1933 and was originally founded by Myron Scott in Dayton, Ohio.  It is now managed by the All American Soap Box Derby organization that is located in Akron, Ohio.  Across the country there are many cities that hold a local race to determine their local champions.  Once a year Akron holds a national event in Akron to run off these champions to determine the national champions.

The basic local race consist of a hill, a release ramp/gate, and a finish line.  The hill can be either a permanent track or a road that is temporarily closed to hold the event.  The release gate holds the cars in place until the race manager decides to send them down the hill.  The finish line consist of a timer and a set of sensors that measure which lane has won.  This data is then sent to Derby PRO software that manages all of the different divisions and brackets for the entire race.

Accuride corporation that manufactures precision slides for the furniture and wood working industry has created an exciting event that brings together common wood working sanders with drag racing.  The sanders can either be standard unmodified belt sanders or souped up modified units.  The sanders race down a 75' wooden track that contains accurate timer sensors to determine each sanders speed and overall time.  Grit timer is the timing system that they use to perform the actual timing measurement.  The Grit Timer is manufactured by a company called Super Timer that previously manufactured timers for soap box derby racing.  The timer communicates all of the track timing data to Derby PRO software that then manages the race brackets and announces the winners.  Derby PRO has the ability to read aloud the names of the racers along with the timing data.