The Greater Pittsburgh Soap Box Derby was run Sunday along Eden Park Boulevard in McKeesport in front of the McKeesport Area High School.

And next month, the contingent representing Pittsburgh at the All-American Soap Box Derby Championship in Akron, Ohio, will be entirely female.

	Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette Kerry Hamlin, foreground car, a student at the Pittsburgh High School for Creative and Performing Arts, was nose-to-nose Sunday with Tyler Cecil, of Norwin Middle School, in the Greater Pittsburgh Soap Box Derby. Click photo for larger image.

There were 34 drivers in the local races. About a dozen of them were from the Norwin School District, which is home to two of the three winners, Mikayla Wobrak, 11, who won the stock division, and Emily Funyak, 13, the winner of the super stock division. Janel Hall, 15, of East Freedom, Blair County, won the master's division.

The Norwin School District's interest in Soap Box racing can be attributed directly to the interest of the family of Isabel Cox, of North Huntingdon, the secretary of the local Soap Box Derby club.

She said neighborhood youngsters get interested every year when the Coxes pull out their racers to work on them in the driveway.

Mikayla is the Coxes' next door neighbor. Matt Cox, 14, placed third in the master's division.

Mrs. Cox said the family's involvement started with Bob Cox, her brother-in-law from West Mifflin. He became a part of the event when the competitions, which had not been held since the '70s, started again in McKeesport in 1983.

The course in Akron will be a bit different from what the local racers are used to. Chuck Fryer, president of Pittsburgh Soap Box Derby, said the McKeesport race runs 621 feet with two lanes, but the national championship race is on a 900-foot course with three lanes.

-- Ann Belser