The Day Gravity Died: 2012 Nazareth Adult Soapbox Derby

The 5th annual Nazareth Adult Soapbox Derby was held May 5, 2012 on the West Prospect Street hill. Lots of great cars came out including a rolling office cubicle, a functional arcade game machine, and a giant metal rooster from New England. This year, however, the event ended in controversy (technically there was also controversy last year, albeit only in my head, when the X-Wing Fighter car was two votes short in voting for “crowd pleaser” after all the fans left when it the rained, but I digress).

The Controversy:

During the final race, which determines the first, second, and third place winners, the Holy Family Club car driven by “Jason” appeared to block another car driven by “Rob.” The winner, “Jeff,” who was way out in front, caught most of the 2nd and 3rd place action on his rear-facing car-cam. This video shows the action.


In the video, it appears as though Jason in the Holy Family car (white) swerves to block Rob’s car (red) from passing several times. The red car’s right front wheel collides with the rear left side of the white car right before the finish line. Jeff’s car-cam mysteriously cuts out right before the collision.

Rob began yelling “that’s not racing! that’s not racing!” before entering the pit area. A visibly upset Rob pushed his car to its final pit area while gaggles of excited children played video games on the totally awesome Pac-Man car nearby. Rob continued his tirade to anyone that would listen. Jason disappeared almost immediately and did not collect his trophy

 On the NASBRA facebook fan page comments began on Saturday night about the legality of contact during soapbox derby races. Jeff’s car-cam video was posted (a very cool video, I might add). The back-and-forth on Facebook continued through Sunday. Sometime between Sunday evening (9:30PM) and Monday (9:52AM) all comments newer than 6:42AM May 5 were removed from the Facebook page wall. This included all comments regarding the controversy and all innocuous general posts from other fans. By 12:47PM May 7 the comments were restored.

Rob was very vocal on Facebook and his comments seem to suggest that the race organizers condone or even encouraged Jason’s behavior. He alleges that the Holy Family car was given a head start by a starter whose back was facing the drivers (Jeff’s Car-Cam Video shows the starter was facing the drivers). He also alleges that Mario Andretti, the checkered flag waver of the day, was so outraged by the final race he left immediately in disgust. He alleges that Jason was drunk during the race and the race organizers allowed a visibly drunk man to continue racing. Rob’s comments also suggest that he should be thanked for building such great competitive cars and “raising the bar” for the event.

I have seen no online rebuttal comments from Jason.

• Did the Holy Family Club car deliberately block Rob’s car?
• Was the driver too intoxicated to drive?
• Did Mario Andretti leave immediately after the final race despite appearing in photos with the winners?
• Does Rob deserve to be thanked just for participating?
• Did the Holy Family car get a head start? And did the race organizers facilitate a head start?
• Did the race organizers condone the Holy Family car’s behavior?
• Was Mario Andretti somehow in on the whole thing, perhaps giving the Holy Family car driver pointers on blocking techniques?
• Would the X-Wing Fighter car have won crowd-pleaser in 2011 if the crowd hadn’t dispersed when it rained, including the builder’s own wife and children?
• Would the X-Wing Fighter car builder’s wife and children have even voted for his car even though they knew how much work he put into it and how much attention to detail there was? I mean, the frigging R2-D2 spun around for crying out loud? How could that not win? Crowd seemed awfully pleased to me. Did anyone else’s car have spinning droids? umm...No. There weren’t any droids at all…it was just cars…regular boring cars. What planet am I on? It’s like everyone has completely lost it and I’m the only one with any taste.
• Is it a coincidence that Jeff’s video stops just before the collision?
• Is Rinker’s hair real?
• What was up with THIS GUY?
• Is THIS PHOTO doctored to exaggerate the crowd and support the poster's point about safety?
• Is it coincidence that the aggressive car's sponsor is an establishment that the race organizer's frequent?

The answer to most of these questions is “who cares.” It’s supposed to be a bunch of grown-ass men and women rolling down a hill on home-made contraptions. But the actions of some and reactions of others likely have ended our annual soapbox derby.