Event of the Month

Event of the Month They're Back! But Don't Call Them Soap-box Racers

Don't call them soap-box racers in Bisbee. Here they're coast-ers, and no two are alike. Ten-year-old Daniel Carabeo pilots a "Batmobile," patterned after a toy model that his dad bought and assembled. Brothers Jason and Nathan Espinoza, who tied for first place in the 13 through 16 age bracket, drive sleek, metallic-blue, low-slung jobs. Another coaster is a caged style, and one plywood design even looks like a Soap Box Derby car.

Prizes are awarded not only to the fastest but also to the best-looking and best-built coasters. The idea is to encourage originality in the design of the racers that on Independence Day each year whiz down the length of Tombstone Canyon to cross the finish line in the heart of Old Bisbee.

For more than 80 years, coast-er races for kids have been a Fourth of July tradition in Bisbee. But after World War II adults got into the act, building coasters capable of hurtling down the canyon road at more than 60 miles an hour. It was dangerous. Twice the races were suspended following fatal accidents. But in 1993, after a more than 10-year layoff, the Community Coaster Race Committee brought the races back, this time with an age limit of 16 years.

To assure safety, the committee installed strict rules. The weight limit for driver and vehicle is now 300 pounds, crash helmets are required, and coaster cockpits must be padded. Additional restrictions on axle length, wheel size, braking systems, steering cables, and tire inflation help to hold down speeds. To protect racers and spectators, part of the course is lined with hay and straw bales.

The mile-and-a-half-long downhill course begins near the head of Tombstone Canyon beneath the West Boulevard overpass. There, race officials weigh car and driver, check for safety, and give last-minute instructions. "Don't be afraid to use your brakes," the starter cautions. The drivers, 13 in all, have done a trial run, but the set look on their faces betrays a bit of tension and fear.

Before the race I had coasted the length of Tombstone Canyon on my bicycle, so I know how swiftly the force of gravity accelerates a wheeled vehicle to breakneck velocity. Streetside utility poles and traffic signs quickly swept past in a blur, and the enthusiastic shouts of pedestrians were muffled by the wind whistling through my crash helmet's earholes.

Throngs of spectators, urging on their racing favorites, congregate behind hay bales at the sharpest curves where the drivers' abilities are really tested. At the first long curve the coast-ers are still picking up speed, the drivers intent, even grim-faced. A few, crouched to lower wind resistance, are grinning.

The grinning stops, though, down at Castle Rock, a familiar Bisbee landmark, where a steep drop and a couple of tight curves one right, the other left decide the outcome of the race. Most of the kids touch their drag brakes coming past Castle Rock, slowing before plunging straight down the final chute between taller downtown buildings a canyon within a canyon to the finish line. Average time: about three and a half minutes.

"Were you scared coming through those tight curves at Castle Rock?" I ask Richard Stafford, the proud winner of the junior division. Surrounded by admirers, Richard reclines in his coaster's cockpit. "No, I was a little nervous at the beginning of the race," he answers with the cool assurance of a racing veteran, "but I'd been down the course in the time trial last week, so I knew how to handle it."

WHEN YOU GO

The Bisbee Coaster Race will be held Monday, July 4, 1994, beginning at 7:30 A.M. If you plan to attend the race, organizers suggest you come to Bisbee at least the night before so you can get a good spot to watch the action. For more information, contact Jim Cox at (602) 432-5327.