'The Need For Speed'

Feb. 4—HIGH POINT — new exhibit at the High Point Museum pays tribute to a cherished, almost archaic pastime that once was one of the city's most beloved events — the High Point Soap Box Derby.

"The Need For Speed: Soap Box Derby Racing in High Point," highlighted by an authentic car that competed in the High Point race some 70 years ago, opened last week at the museum.

The exhibit also includes a pair of racing helmets, a series of enlarged vintage photos from the High Point races of yesteryear, and a video featuring interviews with two men who raced in the High Point derby during their youth.

"Our collection showcases an exciting annual event in High Point's history," said Edith Brady, museum director. "This is a great opportunity for visitors to explore the world of derby racing, while seeing if they recognize any of the drivers or businesses that sponsored them."

The centerpiece of the nostalgic exhibit is a derby car from 1953, donated to the High Point Historical Society by the late Henry Clyde Williams Jr., who won second place in the car that year. Williams also donated his 1953 blue racing helmet and his award from the 1952 race, when he won Best Constructed Car. Those two items are also part of the exhibit.

Williams' bright red derby car, which was sponsored by the High Point chapter of the International Association of Fire Fighters, was recently conserved with funds donated to the historical society's 2021 Adopt-An-Artifact campaign. Approximately $2,500 was raised to conserve the car, according to Tamara Vaughan, communications coordinator for the museum.

"The car had been sitting in Clyde's basement since 1953, up on some blocks," she said. "The paint looked pretty intact beneath the dust, but when we started looking at it more closely, the more fragile it was. A lot of the paint had to be consolidated and reglued."

Vaughan explained that conserving the vehicle is not the same as restoring it.

"You're not trying to fix the thing to make it look brand new — you're just trying to conserve what is there," she said. "So it doesn't look perfect — it doesn't look the way it did the day Clyde drove it."

While the original soap box derby began in Ohio in the 1930s, High Point didn't host its first race until the summer of 1951. Gary Davis, a local radio personality, was instrumental in establishing the High Point Soap Box Derby, so local lads wouldn't have to go to Winston-Salem to compete. The first race was held at the big, long hill on Centennial Street, and later derbies were staged on East College Drive, Church Street and Kirkwood Street. The final race was held in 1972.

For the popular races, boys between the ages of 11 and 15 — and eventually girls, too — were required to build their own derby cars, although fathers typically helped with the construction to some degree. The challenge was to build a car that would soar down the hill, relying solely on aerodynamics and gravity to get it to the finish line. According to a blog post by museum officials, the average speed of the cars during the initial 1951 race was 41 mph — not too shabby for a collection of hand-built racers.

"The boys who raced were dead serious about what they were doing," Balinda Davis Ferree, Gary Davis' daughter, told The High Point Enterprise a few years ago. "Their cars weren't just some orange crates they hammered together in the backyard — they were beautiful little cars with gorgeous paint jobs, and they had to pass arduous inspection before they would be allowed to race."

Ferree donated a number of her father's vintage derby photographs to the historical society, along with a red racing helmet from the original race in 1951.

In addition, the exhibit includes a video with footage from the National Soap Box Derby in Akron, Ohio, as well as interviews with two former High Point racers — Henry Clyde Williams Jr., the man who donated his car to the historical society, and Harrison "Bud" Lyons, who became the first African American youth to win High Point's derby in 1954.

The exhibit will remain on display through the end of March.

jtomlin@hpenews.com — 336-888-3579