Pinewood Derby

Both Ethan and Alex are in Scouts this year... a whole ball of wax if you ask me.... there's no end to all the requirements these kids have. Anyway, that's for another post. Early Feb. was the culmination of one of the Scout's funnest events: The Pinewood Derby.

Each cubscout is given a wooden block - literally, a wooden block- and four wheels. He has to fashion it into a car, attach the wheels, careful of all the height, length and weight restrictions, and prepare it for racing several weeks later.

Ethan and Alex each drew out their car design, Ric took them each to the woodshop on post and they carved their cars, painted them, shellacked (?) them, and weighted them down to come as close to, but not over, the allowed weight.



The very serious Cubmaster weighed in all the cars the night before the race and held them all for safe (and fair) keeping until the race the next morning. Three cars race at a time, once on each track; complicated software tracks all the time trials until a Pack winner is declared.

Here, Alex's car (green with yellow stripe) waits to race.



And here is the face of the little boy who won all four of his races - fastest in his Den.


Unfortunately, once he won the Den race, he had to compete with the other fastest cars for the winner of the whole cub scout Pack. His car held its own, coming in first in one race and second in another, but not fast enough to place. Still, he sure felt like a BIG winner.

Ethan and his friend, Ben watch the race at the end of the track.

Here, Ethan's car is the black blur in the lead. I'm glad I got this picture; it was the one time his car came in first. Unfortunately, Ethan's car was well-built, but did not place.

Ric and the boys pose with their cars.

We were so proud that they each designed, carved, painted, and assembled their cars with minimal help from adults. They were great cars and they had so much fun at the event.