Bringing Orange Crate Racing to Ramona

Rylan McAnelly focuses on the 300 feet to the finish line. Photo by Darrel Kinney

By E.A. Barrera

Nobody’s quite sure when the first homemade car made out of an orange crate sped down a hilly street. But chances are, soon after Detroit started churning out Fords, Chevys and Dodges to all the dads across America, their children wanted to drive something that looked similar.

As far back as some of the silent “Our Gang” movies to postwar images of Cub and Boy Scout races evoking a Norman Rockwell Americana, the soap-box or orange-crate cars that youngsters made to race down long,winding suburban streets have become a fixture of the American scene.

Mark Tallman, Loren Godes, Mark McAnelly of Ramona talk with Al Hooper of the Chula Vista Lions Club about the Orange Crate Derby course. Photo by Darrel Kinney

Mark McAnelly wants to bring this slice of small-town culture to Ramona. An avid off-road racing enthusiast and 10-year resident of Ramona, McAnelly recently discovered orange-crate derby mania while talking to his mother.

“I grew up in Chula Vista and my parents still live down there. I was on the phone with my mom when she told me about the Chula Vista Orange Crate Derby races. She thought it would be something fun I could do with my son Rylan, and she was right,” said McAnelly, who owns Southwest Landscape, “It’s easy to go on the Internet and get the information you need to build the cars. We built seven here in Ramona and it only took us a couple of weeks."

The Chula Vista races are an annual event that McAnelly would like to copy for Ramona. Four age groups of boys and girls, ranging from 7 to 14, compete against one another in cars built to specific guidelines. The cars cannot be longer than 6 feet, wider than 3 feet, or weigh more than 125 pounds. The course laid out for the race is 300 feet long, 40 feet wide, and it is bracketed by orange roadside cones and bales of hay. Speeds near the bottom of the hill can reach up to 30 miles per hour, so all racers must wear helmets, and the wheels on each vehicle must be 10 inches in circumference.

“Everyone uses the same size wheels,” McAnelly said. “People can be creative in the design or look of their cars, but the size of the wheels makes sure nobody will have a distinctive advantage.”

McAnelly, who graduated from Bonita Vista High School in 1984, became interested in professional, off-road motor sports soon after high school. He would go out to the desert and ride three- and four-wheel motorcycles, often racing in such venues as the Barona speedway, Carlsbad raceway, and competitions in Baja. He worked with the late Corky McMillin, participating in some of McMillan’s champion off-road teams as a member of his pit crew. 

McAnelly said he enjoyed the competition of racing and the camaraderie of the sport’s enthusiasts. He noted many similarities between the world of off-road racing and the folks who participate in soap-box derby racing.

“What I especially liked about the off-road circuit was the way everybody treated each other,” he said. “There was a real family feeling, even among competitors. You could always count on someone helping you out if you needed a hand, and that same sense of community exists in these derby races. Everybody is out there to have fun, and if you need a little help or you can help someone else out, that’s what you do. Strangers quickly become your friends.”

Another similarity to professional racing, McAnelly said, is the infusion of sportsmanship and competition it breeds in the children who participate.

“One of the important things the derby races do is teach kids the value of sportsmanship. They learn how to win gracefully and how to lose while keeping their head up,” McAnelly said. “In any competition, someone is going to win and someone is going to lose. The way you treat others during that competition is what counts in life.

“I’ve made a good living and career with my life, and this is a nice way to give back to kids and spend some fun times with my own son.”

McAnelly said he has been talking with the people who sponsor the races in Chula Vista about starting an annual event in Ramona. He said the sponsors of the races, which include the Lions Club of Chula Vista, are excited about the prospect of bringing the races to Ramona and have pledged to lend McAnelly the necessary equipment and expertise until the Ramona derby has established itself.

The derby has been a popular event in Chula Vista for 26 years and last year, county supervisors awarded the program $4,000. McAnelly is confident that orange-crate derby racing will be just as popular in Ramona.

“I moved here 10 years ago because I like the small-town atmosphere of Ramona,” he said. “The family atmosphere of Ramona, that is such a big part of the quality of life we lead up here. I just think a thing like this could be such a great thing for Ramona. It’s really a great way for families to spend time together.”