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1960
Gravity's champion: The All-American Soap Box Derby's own roll of champions carries, for 1960, a South Bend name: "1960 – Fredric Lake, South Bend, IN." The South Bend Tribune put the boy on its front pages that August: "A still-surprised but delighted South Bend boy arrived in New York City today" — Frederick Lake, son of Mr. and Mrs. Mark L. Lake, of 924 North Twyckenham Drive, fresh from winning the national championship at Akron, Ohio, where the All-American has been raced since the 1930s. The derby's roll spells the name Fredric and the Tribune Frederick; both spellings stand in the record as printed. South Bend's gravity racers raced down hills against the country's best through the derby's local years, and the roll of champions — read end to end for this history — holds the one national title, Lake's, at its head.
Sources:
- All-American Soap Box Derby, "Past Champions" (soapboxderby.org) — the champions roll: "1960 – Fredric Lake, South Bend, IN."
- South Bend Tribune, 15 August 1960 (republished in the paper's "Headlines in History," 9 August 2026) — Frederick Lake's arrival in New York after the Akron win; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Mark L. Lake, and the 924 North Twyckenham Drive address.