Pinewood Derby

On January 17th, Tanner competed in his pack's annual Pinewood Derby, which is something akin to church basketball. In other words, what should be a fun, learning experience for the cub scout and his parents sometimes turns into a knock-down drag-out free-for-all competition. The movie Down and Derby is a fairly accurate depiction of how the whole event can get out of control. However, we always enjoy the experience of building the car, trying to learn all the tips and techniques for a fast car, and then seeing how we compare with others in our pack.

Since this is the 12th pinewood derby car I have helped to build, you would think I would have this whole process well in hand. Unfortunately, the process is not an exact science and small variables can really impact the final result. Tanner really wanted to have a fast car this year so he chose a design that was successful for Jordan and for his cousin Tynan.

Here we are working on the axles to Tanner's car - sanding out the burrs and making them as smooth as possible. And of course painting the body of the car. In previous years, the kids wanted the car to have a smooth paint finish but their hands were not strong or large enough to effectively use a spray paint can. This year, I was able to find a handle that fits on the spray can which made it much easier for Tanner to do the actual painting. Tanner and I spent a fair amount of time on his car and we both felt pretty good with the final result.

Race day is always fun and the whole family came along to support Tanner. My sister Janel and her son Tynan also came to support Tanner in his quest for a victory. Our pack hired a local outfit to run the race complete with track, electronic starting and finishing gate, and computer software which generates the racing schedule and organizes the results down to 4 decimal places!

We all had a great time with one unfortunate experience. After one of Tanner's races, his car was dropped when it was being transferred back to the pit area. The fall caused 2 of the axle holes to break. We were able to super glue it back together so it could continue racing but the damage caused the car to slow down. Initially Tanner was was very upset although he came to terms with it by the end of the evening and realized that it was an accident. Tanner's car ended up in 4th place and he missed out on 3rd place by the smallest of margins--and I mean small. Even after the damage, his average race time for the derby was 3.8521 seconds. The third place winner had an average of 3.8517 seconds. That means he lost by .0004 seconds!! I guess there's always next year!