No engines, no motors—just gravity—carried racers down the hill at Seymour Smith Park for the Monster Rally soapbox derby. Families came from well beyond Omaha to take part, including one father who drove six and a half hours just to get his kid to the starting line.
The Monster Rally is a soapbox derby event organized by Amanda Roseland, according to KMTV 3 News Now Omaha. Contestants race down the track relying purely on gravity and preparation, with no engines involved in getting their cars to the bottom of the hill. Roseland described the soapbox derby community as something close to an extended family, one that travels between cities for races and ends up staying at the same hotels along the way.
That regional pull brought Cody Garcia and his family six and a half hours from Ogallala to compete at the Monster Rally, the station reports. Garcia's remarks focused on the family aspect of the sport and parents working hand in hand with their children.
Parents and Kids Building Cars Together
While kids are the ones steering the vehicles down the hill, the derby involves the whole family well before race day arrives. Garcia said the sport puts parents to work hand in hand with their kids.
Garcia said that hands-on process teaches children confidence and a healthy dose of competitiveness while keeping families connected. The same theme has surfaced in past coverage of the broader Omaha Soap Box Derby tradition, where parents have said the sport builds character and people skills while kids learn to tinker with their own machines, per the same station's earlier reporting on the Omaha Soap Box Derby. That event, held at the same Seymour Smith Park, has been described as an 88-year-old tradition in the city.
A Tradition Dating to 1934
The roots of the sport run far deeper than any single Omaha race. Soap Box Derby has operated as a youth gravity-racing program since 1934, according to the International Soap Box Derby, which serves as the sport's official sanctioning body and hosts the annual World Championships in Akron, Ohio. Competitors between the ages of 7 and 20 are eligible to race under the organization's rules.
The scale of that national stage is considerable. Nearly 300 young racers from across the United States, plus competitors from Canada and Japan, took part in this year's 88th FirstEnergy All-American Soap Box Derby, the International Soap Box Derby reports. Winners from Omaha's race have advanced to that World Championship in July in past years, giving local kids a path from a hometown hill to an international field.
Omaha's Derby Pipeline to Akron
Omaha has sent racers to that stage before. Local champions Lily Brand, Drew Brand and Brooke Hamilton were previously scheduled to compete in the world championship derby in Akron after winning at home, KMTV 3 News Now Omaha has reported. The city's derby complex at Seymour Smith Park has also hosted the National Derby Rallies Championship, according to the Omaha World-Herald, underscoring the park's standing within the national derby circuit.
The regional connections run through families like Garcia's. At the 2025 All-American Soap Box Derby in Akron, Adaela McBride of Ogallala won the Local Stock championship, according to a Yahoo News report on that event. That 87th FirstEnergy All-American Soap Box Derby brought racers from across the country to Akron, the same report noted.
