The idea for Seattle's All-American Pike Place Soap Box Derby came from Bill King, an artist selected Mayor of Pike Place Market by leaders within the market vendor community. Federally funded and sponsored by the Seattle Arts Commission, the event started in 1970 as part of the annual Pike Place Market Street Fair and was intended to encourage the making of public art.

In this image racers participate in the first of five derbies to be held throughout the summer along the Post Avenue track while spectators line the sidewalks of Pike Alley. Twenty-eight racers competed in this derby, with names such as, "The Excelsior,"Pig Alley," "Terrier Trike Unlimited," "The Mint," and "Fireball Special." The racers were to accumulate points in each of the derbies, and the racers with the highest totals were to be entered in the "Seafarce 500" in August.

Caption information source: "Soap-box derby running is all downhill," The Seattle Times, March 27, 1972, p. 28.
Caption information source: "Seattle Now & Then: Pike Place Market Soap Box Derby, 1975," retrieved from https://pauldorpat.com/2018/10/06/seattle-now-then-pike-market-soap-box-derby-1975
Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.