Evening star., 1949-08-15
Akron Boy Wins Soap Box Derby
|Givinq City 2 Winners in Row
D. c. Entry Wins Twice
In Heats, Posts Tie for
Second Fastest Time
BY Wallace {. Clayton
stor Sfuff Correspondent

AKRON, Ohio, Aug. 15.-Akron
was the home of a newly-crowned
All-American Soap Box Derby
champion today for the second
successive year.
The Soap Box Derby capital
became the only city to sponsor a
Derby winner two years in a row
when 14-year-old Fred Derks won
a close decision in yesterdays 18th
renewal of the coaster car classic.
Akron also is the only city to spon-
sor three national champions
Donald Strub, Is, won the nation
wide finals last year and Claude
Smith started the Akron victory
parade IN 194l.
The race was run in near
perfect weather before a disap-
pointing turnout of $4,000 per-
sons. Past Derby crowds have
averaged between 10000 and
10000 persons.
Fred, who carried New Testa-
ment in his car. barely defeated
Donald Klepsch, IA, of Detroit,
and Charles P. Muhl, jr., IA. OF
Cleveland to win the top prize OF
a four-year college scholarship.
Ashton Nosed Out.
The Klepsch boy came in second
four yards behind Fred, to win
a 1949 Chevrolet Scant inches
behind was the Cleveland rep
resentative who earlier had nosed
out Washington's Alfred Ashton
in the third round of racing.
Alfred won his first two heats
and posted a tie for the second
fastest time of the day before he
was inched out of competition.
The 14-year old Kramer Junior
High School student confessed he
was disappointed" over his show
ing.
Il thought I could beat most Of
the cars he said, but I was
afraid of that Cleveland car all
along. I didn't think I could beat
it. That boy certainly did a nice
job"
Alfred was lucky when it came
to heat assignments. He competed
against but one boy in each OF the
contests in which he raced nearly
all the other champions raced in
three-boy heats.
In his first race. the auburn
haired boy easily defeated Richard
Holdeman, 13, of Elkhart, Ind.
Alfred's aluminium painted speed
ster pulled ahead halfway down
the 975-foot course and crossed
the finish line two and a half
lengths in front of his rivals.
Scores For Test Time.
Alfred's next opponent was
George Nixon, IS, of Kansas City,
Mo. The Washington entry scored
his fastest time of the day-27.05
seconds-in narrowly defeating the
Nixon boy. The two cars were al
most exactly even until the last
few yards. Then Alfred's car
spurted ahead an iaosed across the
finish line inches ahead of the
Kansas City car.
Alfred could have used that fast
time in the next round. Early in
the, heat he inched ahead of his
opponent, the Muhl boy. But as
the cars neared the finish line the
Cleveland entrant pulled ahead
and crossed the last white stripe
q quarter Of a car length ahead OF
Alfred. The winning time was
27.21 seconds.
The second-round time posted
by Alfred was beaten only by
Charles Muhl, who ran the fastest
heat Of the day in the first elm
'ination round when he whipped
down the course in 2703 seconds.
Alfreds time was tied by Donald
Klepsch's performance in his Sec
ond-round heat.
Fred Derks' Derby winning time
was 27.16 seconds, a tenth OF a
second more than he took to win
the Akron city race over the same
course a week ago. He also COM
peted in the 1948 Akron City race;
thus, he was probably more famil-
lar with the track than any of the
other contestants.
Sentiment Evenly Divided.
AS the three finalists lined up
for the last heat, crowd sentiment
was about evenly divided between