Pinewood Derby

Colby loves Cub Scouts and is learning a lot from the things he does in Scouts.  This week he participated in his first Pinewood Derby.  This was such a fun experience for him and the whole family.

The car was fun to make too.  Colby wanted to make a firetruck but he also wanted it designed like a race car so we built a firetruck race car.  Colby designed the shape and Russell cut it out.  Then the fun sanding began.  Colby sanded the wood until it was smooth.  Russell spray painted it and then it was time for the details.  Colby did all of the painting while I did the Maltese Cross.  To add weight to the car, we shaped fishing weights into cubes for the sirens on top of the car.  We really wanted Colby's car to win so we looked up every Pinewood Derby secret out there.  We learned how to place the weight properly and even how to set the wheels so that only three wheels hit the track for less friction.  We did all of the tricks.

Finally it was time for the Derby.

Russell took Colby to the weigh in and registration and he was all set to race.  Something happened though and he didn't get put into the racing system.  As the races started, we realized that Colby had not raced and some of the other kids were starting to race twice.  Russell and I rushed up to the guy in charge and asked why Colby was not racing.  We found out that he was not included in the system.  It took a while to fix and we actually had to re-enter everyone but we got it set up correctly.  Then the races began!

Each car raced four times, one on each track.  As we watched, we noticed that Colby was winning every race!  Some of them he won by a landslide and another one he won my a millisecond.  It was so fun to watch.  The cool thing was that everyone was having a good time racing no matter if they won or not.  

When the final results were tallied, Colby won first place!!!

He was so happy!  He won just by .005 of a second but that was enough.  We even had a final race of the top four cars and he won that one too.  This was a serious thing for Colby.  After all of the work Colby put into this car and the careful way he took care of it, I was so glad that he won.  

This was such a fun pack meeting!