The Pinewood Derby

Today was the BSA (Boy Scouts of America) Pinewood Derby. This was quite an event for all the boys and their families. If you were a boyscout, lived with a boyscout, or have a boyscout, you will understand the time and effort that goes into the making of these little chunks of pine on wheels. All you want in the end is for your car (I mean, your boy's car) to make it pass the finish line. If it goes fast, well, that's only a plus. Brad worked diligently on these bad boys (the cars). You wouldn't beleive all the work that is necessary for a functioning fast car. Let alone TWO cars for your TWO boys. Cutting the shape, sanding it down, sanding some more, filing the axels (nails), polishing the axels, buffing the tires, adding weight, taking off weight, polish the axels some more, several coats of paint, and please dear God do not forget the pounds of graphite. For extra lubrication Brad actually ran the cars on our treadmill after drowning them in even more graphite.

The cars had to be finished by last night. We had to get them "registered" with the cub master. They had to weigh 5 oz or less and fall between a certain length and width. Ethan's was fine, but Dom's ended up being .05 oz. over the max. So the cub master had to dremel out some of the wood on the bottom of his car on site. After one last finally weigh in the cars were complete and we had to leave them there and wait until the morning races to see if they even ran on the track.

There were 51 cars to race. Each car had 8 heats. Dominic came in first in his races except 3 which he came in a very close 2nd (once to his brother). Ethan came in 1st in all his heats.

I wish that everyone could have been there to see the races. It was a lot of fun. Brad was admired by most of the dads and got a lot of "Atta boy, dad!" after the races. 2 cars in the top 4 out of 51 cars is pretty outstanding. They even teased that he will be hosting the workshop for the boys next year. Brad's already thinking can't we just reuse our cars from this year?

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