Beyond gravity: new ideas for derby %%head%%Soap Box Derby looks to bring in new ideas

"Down" has been the all-important direction that has guided and propelled the All American Soap Box Derby for more than seven decades. But the Akron institution's funding is down as well, threatening its existence and forcing it to look in a new direction.

The derby is looking at technological innovation to get it back up to speed. It wants to broaden its base to include older student competitors and have college-age engineering students design their own vehicles, possibly applying solar power and other energy sources to self-propelled cars.

The idea is still in the planning stages and may not bear fruit in time for the 2010 race season.

The derby already relies on one of the most environmentally friendly energy sources - gravity. Derby Chief Executive Officer Jim Huntsman says the organization wants to harness any green alternative energy source, including wind and solar power.

Driving the innovation is economic necessity. The derby has not had a corporate sponsor for the past three seasons, has lost money two out of the last five years, and barely broke even this year, say Huntsman and derby Chairman Bill Evans.

Further, the economic downturn gave the derby a loss of $425,000 in 2007, the biggest in derby history, Huntsman believes.

The derby said the expanding technology may also make the race more attractive to a corporate sponsor.

Economic challenges are not new to the venerable competition. It was born in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, the brainchild of Dayton newspaperman Myron Scott, inspired by a trio of local boys he saw racing their own home-built cars on a city street.

One of the biggest blows came not from the Depression but years later, when Chevrolet pulled out in 1972, after more than 30 years of sponsoring the derby.

Ever since then, "the derby has always been close to breaking even, teetering between the red and the black," Huntsman said....