Pinewood Derby Champ

Sam has been looking forward to the pinewood derby for years. We haven't done cub scouts before now because it's been too much of a pain. Trekking to pack meetings for over an hour and trying to find the supplies for stuff seemed like just too much. But, we finally enrolled in him scouts. I still don't know exactly how involved we will be, but we'll try out best to at least get him involved for the big stuff.

His first activity was the pinewood derby. We got the kit a few weeks before but due to a lovely bout of food poisoning weren't able to start work on it until the Monday before. Sam worked really hard on it and Matt spent a lot of time with him.

Because it was such a big deal for Sam, I took a lot of pictures and have chronicled the experience here. Stop reading if you get bored. This one is gonna be long.

First of was the wheels and axles. They did everything they could to make those wheels spin fast. Here is Sam timing how many seconds the wheel spins on the axle. Notice, also, the ear plugs and safety glasses. Sam insisted they be safe. Matt obliged.


Sanding together


This is Sam's design he drew. They're discussing how to put it on the block of wood.


Sawing.



There's a story behind the graphite powder. We couldn't find any. We went to hardware stores, big chains, small mom and pop stores, mechanic stores, electronic stores, you name it. We still couldn't find any. We posted on an email group and, finally, someone told us where we could buy some the day before the race.

Sam and I traveled an hour there and back to get it. It was a chemical reagent company and they sold us a huge bag full. That was all they had. We took it. It's not always easy to find stuff in Beijing.

Graphite powder is messy.

At the weigh in, the car was a little over weight so they had to drill some holes in the wood to make it lighter. You can see the holes in the bottom of the car.

The boys from the branch.

The official weigh in.

Sam's car is the blue one on the left.


Excited before the race started.


Sam's car is on the left.


Now on the right.

The first race.



The excitement after winning the first race.

The guy in the middle of the picture below was so funny. His son was racing, too, and we talked a little before the races. After Sam's car won the first race, we realized that his design allowed his car to go below the starting gate a little bit because he cut it really thin. The guy went over to the judge and pointed this out. The judge shrugged his shoulders.

We actually had no idea what the set up would be and Sam came up with his design without any input from us. And, the car won every race by a big margin so that small amount of the car that actually went under the window didn't end up determining the winner. I guess you just gotta laugh. Do you really think they would have disqualified him for that? Sheesh. All I can say is it wasn't intentional and it didn't end up mattering in the end.


The final race starts. (BTW, this was a different track and it's starting gate went all the way down to the bottom so Sam's car didn't have any advantage.) Sam's car is second from the right.

And they're off...

Sam's car pulling ahead...

A little further ahead... and finally winning the finale.


Nervous and excited before getting the trophy.

Proud Dad.

There's the trophy!


Celebrating at Domino's.

Never lost a race. All 4s. (I guess 4 means they win the race and get the most points.)


On the way home Sam was really tired. He had slept over at a friend's house the night before and they didn't sleep much. But, even though he fell asleep in the cab, he still held on to the trophy.

Finally, after a little cajoling, he gave up the trophy and settled in for a nap.

What a great day.