The Pinewood Derby

Gentlemen start your engines... or in this case grease your axles, use only dry lubricant and no filing the tires.

The Pinewood Derby is one of the biggest events in a young Scouts life. The preparation, the creating of the car, the painting, the decals all leads up to the big day when the car is placed on the track to race against ones peers, Oh the tension.

The car comes in a kit, which is nothing more than a square piece of wood, four nails and tires and numbers. The Scout is assigned a number by the Scout Master and then left to his own imagination to create their very one Pinewood Derby car. Jimmy put in several hours designing the car, choosing the colors and the decals. Then after cutting the car into shape the sanding begins.

The race consists of three racing and you have to win two out of the three to advance. Then the winners race two out of three against each other until it is down to one car. There are several Scout groups so the race can be quite long and the tension needs a knife.

Jimmy won his first race and his smile was worth the entire event. He did not do well in the second and in his third and final race his car had a front axle issue, jumped the track and he was out of the running.

No matter to Jimmy, he had a can of orange soda and was back to cheering fellow scout and pack member Ben Codet. It turns out that when all the dust settled, Ben won the entire derby.

The race over Jimmy stated " Dad next year we need to make the car earlier and check the axles, OK?"

Looks like some design research is needed.