In June, Campbell Conrad won the Arlington Soap Box Derby and advanced to national competition in Akron, Ohio. After a poor showing in trials, “it looked like a one-and-done event for the Conrad family” on Saturday, July 26, wrote Cary Conrad, organizer of the Arlington race.
Instead, his son made history: Campbell was the first person from Massachusetts to win an All-American Soap Box Derby race in Akron, Ohio.
The 17-year-old took first-place honors in the Local Masters Division, outracing Brittany Bisighini of Sanford, Fla., and Cameron Burdgick of Albany, N.Y., to the finish line. Conrad’s winning time was 29.162.
“I’ve been racing for six years, and this is my third year at the World Championships,” Conrad told the AASBD website. “In my two years before this year I didn’t win a heat. I felt good throughout the day. My father … helped me all day today.”
In an email Monday, July 28, his dad was ecstatic: “In a race where millimeters often decide the results, Campbell beat them by ¼ car length. Wow….he drove a perfect race….”
He also described how his son’s chances appeared before the race:
“It looked even worse when the ‘lane-draw’ for the first race was announced. We had to race against Indianapolis and Saginaw. These two clubs have been in existence since the 1930s and are extremely strong. Campbell took lane 3, Indy in lane 1 and Saginaw in the middle lane 2.
“In the next race he had a one-on-one against a kid from West Virginia, beat him by ½ a car length….again a perfect race with a perfect line….”
In the qualifier for the top race, his father said, Campbell beat strong competitors from Florida and California.
Then he was set up for the final race of the day, the top division for the No. 1 slot.
“In this race he did something very risky, but it worked,” Cary wrote. “He knew that the water path in lane 3 would veer toward the center of the track, [and] during the last 30% of the run, he let the car follow the road (less resistance), with the risk of crossing the lane-line which would result in a [disqualification].”
Conrad started the Arlington in 2009. He provided some Bay State history:
In 1938 Stanford Hartshorn from Gardner took a third.
In 1977 Jamie Bourque from Waltham took a second.
In 1983 Eric Anderson from Medford took a second.
This story was published Monday, July 28, 2014.
